The Oldest Child of Sin: Fake Angels
by Person With Many Aliases
Summary: Perhaps today... That is what kept me sane all these years... Perhaps today... I will find her... and I will be free...STORY IS DEAD
1. Zepp Underground

What a glorious day. Well, as glorious as Zepp would allow anyways.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched through the open window the smoggy sky that poured in a faint light, hardly revealing anything in the room, other than the small table beside the window, and himself who was seated in front of the table. Not that there was anything else in the room, save a cabinet of basic supplies, the door into the bedroom, and the door into the world. In good light this would have been a sterile white room, stuffy and emotionless, hardly moved in and lacking the owner's personality. Shadows covered the upper half of the occupant's face, leaving only the slack jaw in view, the white polo shirt to reflect the light, and the popular fingerless black gloves on his hands that rested on the steel chair arms.

This was one of his less safe hideouts ever since Gabriel took over and starting making sympathetic groups to the last dictatorship "disappear".

That with the fact that this man took quite a few Black Jobs while the dictatorship was around…

But Zepp was too good to abandon, since it allowed him to hide and remain on the move at the same time, as the flying continent kept moving over the earth.

_Hmm…I should lower the blind. No use having some genetically altered ape staring through my window._

**Hmm… Do I think I can today…**

He looked back down at the objects on the table. An antiquated six-chambered Magnum and its corresponding number of bullets.

_For fuck's sake, all this time and you only managed to find six shots?_

**Oh, shut up. Lucky enough I managed to buy that sixth one from the auction. Besides, I only need one.**

"Should I… can I?" He whispered to himself. He noticed his breathing starting to labor again, his balance starting to sway, that feeling of himself about to throw up, his temples starting to drill into his head…

_Bah. Headaches again._ He slowly rose out of his chair, his nausea slowing his steps and making his movements seem detached him his mental senses. As if the world was just a hallucination, while his head began to pound in pain more and more. Cold sweat was falling. Bad signs. He slumped against the cabinet, and pulled open a drawer full of bottles. Taking one of occupants out, he twisted the cap and swallowed most of the pills within. Quickly the headaches and pains were diminished to the mere nausea and constant sensation of wanting to throw up, as it was the normal feeling he had 24/7. He hated the feeling. As his breath settled into peace again, he turned around to lean his back against the cabinet, staring at the gun, guessing the chances of successfully shooting himself this time. 

_Hmmm… Nah, I'd probably just argue with myself again and waste time._

He cracked a small grin at the accurate conclusion. Freedom, once more, would only be gained the hard way.

_I should be leaving Zepp today. Better pick out a small bounty on the way._

Agreeing to this, he moved about, once more cursing his pathetic balance, and his senses as the feeling of his feet hitting the ground felt far away and isolated from his mind, like he was floating above everything. Inside the bedroom was his traveling sack, "the hat", "the jacket", "the scarf", and "the belt" all lain across the bed. He fit the extra clothes on, moving one of the two belt straps through half of the loops on his jeans, leaving the heavy metal slab that was the buckle to dangle against his left leg, and the other belt strap loosely wrapped around his legs. Taking the traveling sack, he returned to the cabinet to take with him his traveling companions for next several however-longs.

_Aspirin bottle. Aspirin bottle. Half empty Aspirin bottle. Medical stuff. More Aspirin…_

Methodical, mindless movements in preparation of an abstract, pointless, journey to survive.

_Wallet of cash (Meaning a lot of money). Aspirin… Journey to survive? Why is it I allow myself to keep going, to keep eating, to keep living? It's all pointless, there's nothing left._

**It's not like your going waste away by yourself. You survive, because "Perhaps today…"**

He walked over to the gun on the table. Opening its chamber, he began to slide the bullets in.

_These bullets are expensive. This time, I will make sure to check what I shoot. That stupid homeless brat…now over several thousand dollars worth of collector's metal lodged in his dead heart. Bah. Have to check bounties now._

Shoving the gun into the back of his pants, he slung the fat bag over his should by the draw strings, and headed out the door leading into the world, and locked it behind him.

-

-

-

Somewhere, deep in dirt and rock bowels of Zepp were intricate mazes of hangers, cargo rooms, rooms, and countless other little places to forget things in. Over the years, as the island expanded outwards and birthed new chambers on its sides to hold ships, such rooms were forgotten, locked away, walled over, and generally neglected by the government. Naturally, such prospects allowed rightfully named "Underground" movements and businesses to hide in. One of such was located in an old airship hanger deep inside the continents enough to allow no light in, the only lighting coming from yellow bulbs from a building that was a shanty wood and metal structure about the size of an old English Inn. This popular location was a Bounty Office that was not sanctioned by the Zepp government, meaning its lists of bounties were not "filtered" by the Zepp government, as they were known to do. Thus, the brash, impatient, arrogant, fool-hardy, or badly paid of Zepp's finest or worst came here, hoping to find bigger bounties than ones on the surface allowed.

Though being a Bounty Office, the freedom from the government's prying eyes also turned it into a miniature club of all vices. People laughed and drank around tables under pale lights, while music played. Drugs of all kinds passed from hand to hand, and people littered the walls of the building as they were shoved aside to make room when they started to die, or merely passed out. Though right now, despite everything, the discussions throughout the building was centered on a certain topic that has grabbed the attention of all the world.

The main door opened then, and for the next few minutes the silence that slowly crept out from the entrance, leaving the music from the jukebox as the only one with an opinion of the new figure.

"Turn that off!" he shouted.

And so the music box joined the crowd of silence. A few of the new prostitutes eyed his 25-year-old body playfully, but the people who had consistently come to this establishment knew to avoid this man. He always dressed the same, the open R!OT coat that had it's sleeves down to the elbow, revealing the white shirt with the back of the clothing extending past the sides and down to the ankles. The green scarf that was always tied around his neck, that black pointed hat worn and bent backwards, and the jeans that had the lower leg section missing, a mismatched red vinyl leg stitched on instead.

Oh yes, this man could not be forgotten. He called himself only by "Colt". Interestingly enough, a fair sized sack was slung over his should casually, meaning he would be leaving soon. Many people then sighed in relief inwardly. This man was a bother to business for the past several weeks. He was like a spoiled child, always wanting what he wanted for free, and going by any means to get it. Though he often stumbled like a sick man, those who crossed him quickly found their way back home on the shoulders of their friends, beaten severely.

Then there was the talk of his belt. Carved into the steel buckle hanging from his leg was the word _DreAM_ with the "A" standing above the rest of the perfectly lined words. Words on belts like those meant he should have been a Seikishidan Knight. Was a truly? He seemed not to recognize the major battles of the past. Did he even serve? Did he run away? Why was he here?

Colt grunted and pulled out an aspirin bottle, of which he consumed another unhealthy amount. His cold brown eyes scanned the room through his brunette bangs that poked out of his hat. Oh those hateful eyes! A calculating coldness that despised all! He feared no threat and no man, and he treated all with equal distaste, despite their standing. Oh how this establishment hated him! The only thing they could do was wait for him to leave, and keep their best bounties from him in revenge.

_Stupid music making my head hurt._ Colt thought to himself as walked through the throngs of people. Though business started again, the quieter tones, as to Colt's preference showed the air of cautiousness that followed the man's every step.

On the far side of where Colt entered was a wall with several tacked on sheets. These were the printed copies of the bounties that were still active. Once more Jeremy noticed that business was slow, and no expensive bounties were coming in.

_Damnit! I don't want expensive bounties! I want dangerous ones! I want the most dangerous things to have ever crossed this planet! Normal people no longer cut it…_ Colt sighed.

"Hey, you lookin' for some big money?" A scratchy voice addressed Colt. Turning around, the club menace faced his brave fool. Behind a table across him, sat a dumpy looking imp of a man, short, bald, and ugly and in a rich suit.

_Life threatening ones actually, but they're usually more expensive. _"Yeah." Colt replied.

"Good, because I have the most expensive of them all." The Imp grinned

"Oh?" Colt replied amused.

"Don't believe me? I have the sheet right here!" The Imp pulled out a slip of paper from inside his suit jacket, and waved it a bit, allowing Colt only able to discern a lot of zeros worth of money for the bounty.

"A World-Wanted Suspect that Zepp itself is hunting! I bet Bounty Hunters all over are flocking to get that cash cow! You interested?" The Imp grinned.

"Yes…"

"Good, because I'll make a deal with you. Work for me, and my bounties will make you rich in no time!"

Colt sneered. "Work for you? You think you can own me like a pet? At your heed and call a powerful man? You are stupid."

The Imp shrugged. "You not interested in half a million world dollars?"

"I am, but you're going to give the bounty information to me, free." Colt casually replied.

The Imp chuckled challengingly, while straightening out his suit, "Oh ho! You think you push me around? Do you know who I am? I am Lance! King of Dragons!"

Colt leaned over and placed his palm flat on the table, the shadows playing over his face, allowing only his sneer and a lone brown eye to stare back at the Imp known as Lance, "Do you know who I am? I am Jeremy Colt. You are going to give me my information."

"Huh, you think you're made of some tough shit, don't you?"

"I am."

Lance smirked and snapped his fingers. Behind Jeremy, standing from another table were two giants of muscle that loomed down on their leaner target and their boss. All activity within the building ceased, leaving a sudden silence as they all stared at the showdown.

"Don't think I didn't do my homework. I know how strong you are, Colt. But you can't beat these two. Bart and Elmo are going to show you why I'm your boss." Lance confidently announced. The two burly troublemakers snickered and cracked their knuckles.

Jeremy stood up and shrugged sheepishly, "Well at least it isn't some mugger punks in the alleyway."

Lance snorted, "Get him."

-

-

-

Lance bounced through the front door of the Bounty Office and rolled along the ground outside. His face was a bleeding mess, his suit crumpled, and his left arm dangling uselessly. In his other hand was a common knife. As a curious crowd filed out of the building to watch the spectacle, true to his pathetic form, Lance whimpered at the sight of Colt striding out of the building and into the dark hanger with his hands dripping with blood that came from both of the King of Dragon's goons and from the King's face himself.

"Give me my information!" Jeremy shouted at the mobster as he approached. Lance just charged forward with his blade. Closely side stepping the attack, Colt grabbed the thrusting wrist with one hand, before twisting the knife out of his grip, grabbing the falling weapon with his free hand, Jeremy proceeded to slash vigorously wherever he could find on his victim's body, releasing cries of tortured pain, before running the weapon right through Lance's upper arm and kicking him in the stomach, causing the slab of meat in a suit to roll away, minced and ready for Colt's use. As the victor approached, the man sputtered pleas and tried to crawl away.

"Tell me." Was Colt's simple reply.

"Gear!"

Colt rolled his eyes, "Bull shit. Gears can't fight back now."

"Second Justice!"

This caught Jeremy's attention. "How?"

"Another… Another self-reliant one! It's been telling another one to protect it! It's commanding it!"

"How powerful?"

"Demon!"

"Where?"

"Devil's Living Place! A Country! Here!" With his remaining strength, Lance used his slashed arm to pull out the sheet of paper, now bloody and crumpled, and threw it as best he could at Colt. Picking it up, Jeremy studied the artist's impression, drawn by eyewitness accounts.

_A horrid beast, which has two wings and a large tail._ "Hmmm, so powerful that it can change shape, and its wings alone can decimate armies? Interesting." Folding the document neatly and storing it safely within his own jacket, Jeremy pointed at Lance, who froze in fear. "If anything gets the bounty before me, it's all your fault, and I will come back to kill you if I don't find the Gear there. Got it?"

"Oh… Oh fuck… you must be kidding…"

Jeremy began to turn and head back into the building to collect his traveling bag, but he continued to look down at the King of Dragons out of the corner of his eye, and sneered. "Then you are stupid."

Jeremy gingerly headed back to the Bounty Office like a sick old man, as he began to swallow more aspirins to ease his fast growing headaches. __

_A Gear this time? What can be more powerful than a Gear? Will it be this time? Will it be this one?_

**Only one way to find out that it might be "Perhaps today".**

-

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-

Person With Many Aliases presents:

"The Oldest Child Of Sin: Fake Angels"

Guilty Gear Series property of Daisuke Ishiwatari and Sammy Corporation.

Jeremy Colt property of Author "Person With Many Aliases"


	2. Betrayal Under Your Nose

"This is fucking kidding me…" Jeremy murmured with his mouth agape at the scene.

"Hey! Hey sir! What does fucking mean?"

Jeremy continued to stare.

_Is this… really Devil's Living Place?_****

**It gotta be, I mean, I asked and everything.**

Getting the flight from Zepp to the proud country of Once-America-Now-A Country, was in itself no difficulty, other than convincing the stubborn airship pilots that going to a "primitive" location was of their benefit. Once there, it took a while, but Jeremy finally found the location of Devil's Living Place. It was in a forest outside of a small, but functional village. For a place that was supposed to right next to the home of the next harbinger of doom, the people seemed a bit too cheerful. Hell, the village person was SMILING as she pointed out how to get to the Gear's residence.

This village was too happy for Colt to comprehend why. Then he found out what was the problem.

There was no Gear in the Devil's Living Place. Not even one trace of it. The place was some sort of grove, with a little river, and the statues that littered the place.

And the children.

There were children everywhere, playing around, and swimming, and-

"C'mon, sir! I want to know what it means!" the boy tugged at Jeremy's jacket.

_There are children here. And no signs of battle. Where is all the dead stuff?! How late was I?_

**I AM GOING TO KILL LANCE!**

"None of your business." Jeremy coldly reprimanded the child before turning around and marching back down through the thicket that was supposed to be a forest, popping open another bottle of aspirin with his hand to fight back the recurring headaches that made him nearly walk into a tree. Though it was hardly the first time things never went his way, Jeremy's thoughts were still not exactly pleasant as he kicked his way out of a bush and back into the cobblestone streets of the village.

After the War, A Country had lost all of its major cities and means of transport. The great Mississippi was once more the great path to traverse between towns and cities, and this certain village had the privilege of being beside it, as one could tell by the bricked buildings, tiled roofs, and the generous amounts of cobblestone used. Apparently, an aftermath of some big celebration was proceeding, something to do with that large Airship that was floating in the river beside the peaceful homes. The party atmosphere was still around, with people eating and moving outside with joyous looks, everybody wearing fresh clothes, but it was lacking the same amount of energy that a party in full swing would have.

_Bah. Wasted so much effort over some Gear already dead. Now what? I suppose just return to Zepp and shave that bastard's head off. Very Slowly. Or just slowly._

Jeremy continued to pace back slowly, having all the time in the world. That and, if he stepped too hard, the jarring would make his head hurt more than it needed it. Noticing something, Jeremy stopped to see the scene in front of him.

_Standing close beside a white house, blue skies, a gently downwards sloping street, giving way to the scene of the river, and the green on the other side._

A sense of nostalgia and déjà vu suddenly came upon Jeremy, as something seemed to tug at the back of his mind.

_Funny… I don't remember being here before…but then again…_

_Huh!?_

_"Daddy? Is the knight better?"_

_"How do you feel, sir?"_

_Oh yeah…I was… um… I would have said…uh…_

The sharp pain in his head suddenly lanced from the back to the front, breaking his memory. Colt gasped at the abruptness of the attack, barely managing to fall against the white plaster of the house beside him as his hand fought to get the object within the insides of his coat, the other gripping his head tightly through the cloth of his hat. A few people that passed by gave worried looks as he gritted his teeth, hoping the sensation would overcome the pain long enough for him to get the aspirin.

"Um… excuse me-" a voice hesitantly began from behind.

Jeremy slightly caught off-guard, twisted around, the hand reaching for the aspirin instinctively grabbing the magnum's handgrip. The cold stare, along with the clenched teeth from the headaches that made him look like some mad animal, made the two girls behind him freeze at his look.

One of them was pretty much a kid, dressed in an orange getup on top of a black jumpsuit. The other was much older, possibly in her teens. She had a bandanna on her head, and a pair of shorts and a sailor shirt that was maybe a size or so too small for her. Interestingly her long locks had the uncommon tint of blue, and the eyes were colored reddish brown. She stuttered under Jeremy's glare.

"A-are you okay? Uh… you didn't look that good, so uh…"

Jeremy didn't respond, but the heavy breaths and the headache told him to get the aspirin already. Relinquishing the control of his gun, he reached back into the pocket of his black coat, and pulled out the bottle. Jeremy after filled his mouth with another batch of pills. The blue haired girl continued to look worried.

"Are you sure you should have that much? If you take too much…"

_Gah! Stop being so clingy! Go away!_ "I'm fine! Piss off!" Jeremy snarled back, trying to recompose himself as the pain in his head drained away.

The blue haired girl gasped like it was the first time she was insulted, but the kid beside her frowned, "Hey! What's your problem? We're just trying to be nice! No need to get all angry!"

Colt snorted, "Those who prey on the weak come in the guise of a Samaritan."

The orange girl fumed at the comment, "What!? That's not true!"

"The world worked that way since I was a kid."

The kid still didn't give up though, and turned to her older comrade, "Dizzy, you tell him how we took you in! That'll show him he's wrong!"

The blue haired girl, apparently named Dizzy, gave a questioning look "Are you sure May?"

"Absolutely!" went the orange clad girl, carrying the thumbs up of good luck.

"Well, if you say so…" Dizzy turned back to look at Jeremy, "Well you see, I grew up alone, and a lot of people wanted to hurt me… but later May and her friends came and adopted me… they've been very nice, and they never wanted to hurt me…"

"So you see! People can be nice without bad intents!" May exclaimed back at the man.

Jeremy digested the info. _A lot of people wanted to hurt Dizzy? Does she have a bounty on her by any chance? Hmmm…_

"Are you by any chance… a pimp?" Colt asked the orange clad girl, trying to keep the grin inward as he watched the child explode.

"WHAT!? HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF SUCH SHAMEFUL PROFESSION!"

"Well, considering you took in an orphan, then have her dressed in that indecent attire… all you have to do is brain-wash her now."

The May kid just pulled her hair in dismay, giving a large groan before dragging her friend off in a huff, "C'mon Dizzy! This jerk has a learning disability!" A few steps later, May then pointed an angry finger at Colt "As for you! I hope you wrinkle up like a prune and die!"

Jeremy smirked as he watch the two disappear down the cobblestone path. _I hope I go and die too one day…Anyways, enough fun…_ pushing himself off the house, Jeremy stretched his shoulders before heading down the same street, headed towards the large Airship floating in the Mississippi beside the village.

Gotta get back to Zepp and kill the fucker. Maybe I can convince the captain to hitch a ride there or something.

-

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-

Upon reaching the shoreline, Jeremy took in the sights from the new view, primarily the giant ship in front of him.

The size aircraft would have impressed Colt, had there not been a giant gaping hole in the wing of the vehicle towering above him, revealing the entire metal framework beneath, that and all the spray-painted graffiti all over the metal hull. Beggars couldn't be choosers though. It looked fast enough. Probably some transport aircraft or something.

"Oi! Is there a captain up there?" Jeremy then shouted upwards. What resulted was a man dressed in black appearing before the debatable ex-knight, up on the wing above so high, that Jeremy had to crane backwards to notice him, before continuing his questioning. "You the captain?" Instead of getting an answer, all he got was the man in black diving off the side of the wing in an over exaggerate manner. As the man landing perfectly on his feet, Colt critiqued the man's posture.

_Black trench coat, black hat, sunglasses, bared chest, cocky grin, dramatic action dive, cool sideways pose as he looks at me, but no girlfriend. This man is one big walking show off_.

"You want something buddy?" The man in black, presumably the captain, gave a cheerful smile at the straight-faced Colt.

"Are you really the captain, or his stunt double?"

"I am the captain, Johnny of the Jellyfish Air Transport!" The captain stuck a thumb at his chest.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow underneath the shadow of his hat. **_This_ **_is The Johnny of the Jellyfish Pirates? Or is this just an "Oh-look-at-me, I'm-pretending-to-be-one-of-the-most-notorious-bandits-alive" Joker?_

__"Never heard of the Jellyfish Air Transport."

"Oh, we're just a fledgling business."

Jeremy stifled the snort from the pathetic lie. _This **cannot** be The Johnny of the Jellyfish Pirates; otherwise the IPF must stupider than I thought to not be able to get this idiot._

"I need a flight to Zepp."

"Sorry, but we're not a airliner."

_Predictable._ "I'm carrying expensive cargo."

"Oh?" Johnny gave a look of surprise though his sunglasses, and then looked around bit mockingly, "Well, I don't see this expensive cargo of yours."

Jeremy pulled out his Magnum, and opened the chamber. Pulling out one bullet, he held up the metal piece up to their eyelevel. "You know how much this is worth?"

There was a silence as the two realized the reality of the situation. Johnny spoke first. "Is that a real Blacktech Bullet?"

"I'll give you one of these if I get to Zepp."

"You serious?"

"Oh yeah. Out of my own gun too." _Except I'll be giving it from the barrel, and into you brain._ Jeremy made sure he put the shot back into his gun long enough for the captain to notice he had five others in the gun when he put it back. _I'm worth over a million. If he's a real pirate, he'll take the bait._

The captain sighed in defeat and scratched the back of his head. "Well, for you I guess I can consider you cargo…"

"Excellent." _I might lose twenty thousand, but from what you're worth, I might get something out of this trip after all._

-

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-

The night was beginning to fall, and that meant to the pirates May and Dizzy that it was time to return to the Mayship, and back to the sky. The dusk sun that glowed and reflected off the river, along with the lanterns inside and outside of each house they walked past created a beautiful sparkle and homey feeling in the town. The two sighed contently. This was the life.

"It's just too bad we're going to forget the Ice-cream we had once we have dinner."

"Well, I can make some for the crew after dinner for desert." Dizzy suggested.

"Really!?"

"Really."

"That's so cool! This day is so great!" May exclaimed with both fists in the air. Dizzy just giggled and nodded in agreement.

May's mood then darkened somewhat, "It would have been perfect if it weren't for that jerk!"

Dizzy gave a confused look. "Who?"

"You know, that jerk that made fun of us! The one with the headaches!"

"Oh, him."

"Yeah! What a punk. He thinks he such a know it all. Well if I ever see him again, I'll knock him in the head! That ought to serve him right."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah… Anyways, let's get going, it's getting pretty dark!"

When the two aerial buccaneers reached their capital ship, they found themselves in an unexpected commotion. After asking about, it was from their friend April that they managed to get the information.

"What? We're working already?" May reaffirmed with some surprise.

"Yeah, we're supposed to be taking some guy to Zepp. He's giving us a lot of money, from what I heard."

"When are we going to meet this man?" Dizzy then questioned.

"Well, from what I gathered, Johnny's going to introduce him formally or something." The said captain's cough rang loudly for their attention.

"Attention please, my mates. I'm assuming that you all know already that we as 'Jellyfish Air Transport' have decided to carry some very expensive cargo to Zepp. Just so you can identify him, I'll introduce him to you. He's in the crew cafeteria, seeing that he's eating dinner, and that's one of the few places that can hold all of us so that we can see him all see him at once. Luckily he's not as handsome or as talented as you captain, so it's nothing to get excited about."

A few chuckles came but most just followed their fearless leader to their cafeteria. Easily enough they all poured through the door, and May had the luck to be one of the first to satisfy her curiosity.

_No…way…_

But it was, everything from the clothes was right, and if anything could prove it was the same man, it was his swallowing half a bottle of pills without getting sick.

Jeremy looked up to notice the pirate, then merely turned back down to continue eating his meal. May though, was more emotional about this.

"YOU?!"

-

-

-

Dizzy remembered the man as well, but being more forgiving, she accepted her presence easier than her more stubborn friend. Johnny tried to calm his second in command down as best he could, but May continued to indignantly look away from the two men.

"But princess, he's paying us a lot of money…"

"I don't care! I know he's a jerk, and if you help him, I'll refuse to help you fly the ship while he's on it!"

"But I need your help, and with the money I can get you something nice…"

"I don't care!"

Johnny sighed before getting down on his knees to talk to her quietly. "How do you know him?"

"We met in the village, and he made fun of me and Dizzy."

Johnny thought about this for a moment, before an idea came to him. "You know how he's paying us?"

"How?"

"He's giving us a very expensive bullet."

"What's a bullet?" May asked, having a minor recollection of such a word.

"A Blacktech antique."

"Oh."

"He's taking it right out of his gun, and he has five other ones. He's practically giving it away without thinking about it."

May knew this type of attitude, "You mean… he's some sort of rich Zeppian snob?"

"That's what I guess. Anyways, that should mean he has lots of other expensive things one him as well, along with all those bullets. All we need to do is drug him-"

"Then we can rob him to the last penny!" May finished. Johnny nodded understandingly.

"So you see, you can consider this a sort of revenge."

May thought about this. "Well… I still don't like this… but since we are…" The younger captain sighed, "fine… he can stay…"

Grinning, Johnny patted her on the shoulder. "I knew I could count on you. Though, since you're one of the few who don't have duty tonight, you're going to have to show Colt to his room."

"…WHAT?!"

-

-

-

"Didn't expect to run into you again, to tell you the truth. It's like the red string of fate…without the sex of course, 'cause that'd be wrong." Jeremy remarked harmlessly to May as he followed her up the stairs to the crew's quarters. Jeremy once again was carrying the travel bag over his shoulder.

"I don't care, I still think you're an insensitive jerk, who has no idea what he's talking about." May retorted as she unlocked one door that led into a simple room that had a desk, a bed, and a porthole that showed the outside world.

"Not bad." Jeremy noted to himself as he dropped his sack onto the bed, and gave a once over of the room.

"Here." May dully noted as she tossed the room key into Jeremy's awaiting hand. "We're taking off soon, so don't try to sleep just yet. I'll be going now."

The young pirate exited the room, and was began to shut the door behind her.

"Oh, one thing, May." Jeremy called.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you land in this village? I don't see anything this place could offer to an 'aspiring young transport company'." Jeremy asked, a hidden sarcasm in his voice.

"Well, every year or so, we try to land here so we can give clothing and supplies to this village. You should know it was much worse before we came to help. Unfortunately, you seem to be a little slow in that idea of helping others…" May returned just as sarcastically.

Jeremy shrugged. "Well, you're still young, green, and fresh in the business. You'll soon see that people betray each other all the time, and those who help only expect favors. Hasn't your captain gotten betrayed a few times?"

"Puh-lease! All of the crewmembers trust him! He like father to us, and he's going to be my boyfriend one day, so there's no chance anyone could be that mean to him!"

"I see." _You people trust too much._ "Anyways, I think you got a flying junk pile to take off, so scram."

"Don't make fun of the Mayship!"

"It got a hole in it. And it's got graffiti all over it. And it has the bad fortune of having your name in it. Can you think of any redeeming features?"

"GAH! You have issues!"

"You think?"

May just gave another strangled shout of anger before slamming the door. As she fumed towards the bridge, she planned to make their ascent a little steeper than usual.

_Hopefully the jerk will bump his head against something sharp._ May angrily thought to herself.

This was going to be a long trip.


	3. Monsters

The next day, after the initial night and threat of breaking his neck at take off, Bounty Hunter and debatable ex-knight Colt was called to the captain's chamber.

Jeremy right now stood by the window gazing at the clouds floating lazily by, occasionally sipping the liquor, complements of the captain. Johnny himself was seated on his plush couch, playing with his own glass, one leg dangling over another, and one arm thrown over the back his throne. The rest of the massive room was a real captain's room, which meant it reeked of narcissism. Every framed portrait hanged on the wood paneled walls consisted of Johnny or something related to his face. A decidedly Japanese walking cane looking implement was hung and displayed along the wall as well. The couches, desk, an emperor sized bed, and a glass coffee table by the couches, and hundreds of pirate-y looking knick-knacks like maps and other lame props were scattered around the room in an oxymoronic state of messy cleanliness.

All in all, a real captain's room.

"So… enjoying your stay so far?" Johnny asked with a grin.

"Survivable, apart from your psychotic 'Princess'". Jeremy stated without turning around, meanwhile he dropped a few aspirins into his drink and threw back half of the liquid, the coat flaying off to the side to show off his gun shoved in the back of his pants.

The captain didn't seem affected by the extra comment, "Anyways, I asked you here cause I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

Jeremy turned to stare at the captain, who held it until the former folded his arms, still holding his drink, and leaned against the wall, "Sure."

"You've been staying at that village long?"

"No."

"Really? Why did you leave so soon then? The village is pretty nice tourist spot once the world finds out."

"But it isn't, so there's really only one thing that could be of interest there."

"And what's that?"

"The second self-reliant Gear."

"You're a little late."

"I figured that out when I got there."

"Yeah, the bounty's been claimed for about two weeks now."

"By who?" _A man more powerful than a Gear? Possibly. Plan change? We'll see._

"Not too sure about the details. Apparently some chef in China."

"A chef."

"Yeah."

The only thing that Colt could follow up with was a blink.

"A… chef…"

"Yeah?"

"What did he do? Stab it to death with a spatula?"

The captain shrugged, "Like I said, the details aren't exactly clear to me."

"Whatever." Jeremy snorted and downed the remaining rich liqueur, "Anyways, what's the deal behind that Dizzy chick of yours?"

Johnny tried to keep the surprised gag from surfacing, covering it up with a raised eyebrow. "Dizzy?"

"Yeah, Dizzy."

"What deal?"

"People with weird eye and hair colors I can understand now, since it's era of magic. But what are you protecting her from?"

_Crap._ "How do you know I'm protecting her?"

"She told me that a lot of people wanted to hurt her…" Jeremy let an amused lip curl. "A girl so young, and half the world already wants to kill her… Why aren't you trying to kill her too?"

Johnny smoothly half-lied, "She had a bad childhood and mixed up with the wrong people. I happen to not care about what she used to be or do in the past. I just help whoever I can."

"And it just so happens that most of these people happen to be underage orphan girls in need of a shelter?"

Johnny frowned, "I know what you're thinking, but I'm not that sort of person."

"So said the butcher to the cow."

There was a groan before a chuckle and the Captain waving it off, "Get out of here! You're just impossible!"

_Impossible indeed. Everything about me is impossible. How long has it been since Tylon? Still twenty-five after all these years?_ "Sure, sure."

Dropping his empty glass on a small table full of crap that was by his path, Jeremy slowly made his way over to the door like the sick old man he was. Throwing open the door, a surprised yelp came clear from behind.

From Johnny's vantage point, he could see Jeremy look in the direction the door swung, one hand on the door itself. He had a sneer across his face.

"Well, if it isn't the psycho again." Colt closed the door then, but Johnny heard muffled screams through the door, obviously meaning May again.

"Not again…" was the captain's only hopeless sigh.

-

-

-

"So you're not only annoying, stubborn, and dumb, but you're also an eavesdropper as well." Colt teased with a grin

"Well, you're annoying, stubborn and dumb too! And I bet you eavesdrop as well!" May accusingly pointed back.

_Which is unfortunately true._ "Well at least I'm not a helium induced psycho bitch like you."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" Was the resounding shrill cry.

"I called you a helium induced raggedy mutt." Colt firmly answered.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!? WE TAKE YOU IN AS A FAVOR, AND WE FEED YOU AND EVERYTHING, AND ALL YOU DO IS MAKE FUN OF US!"

Colt sighed, "Firstly, the only favor you're doing is nothing, on account of your captain who's doing it for the money. Your feeding me is also on account of your captain, and me making fun of you is because you leave so many opportunities, it's irresistible."

"You're a jerk!"

"Your mother."

"I'm an orphan!"

"It's a comeback, you idiot. Just treat it the same as fuck you."

-

-

-

And so the two stubborn, annoying, dumb eavesdroppers continued to argue, bicker, quarrel, and get in trouble over the course of several days. Never had each other met a person so annoying. For Jeremy it was like having a screaming shouting leech that followed your every step and slowly made his headaches get worse from the constant noise. May's interpretation was that of a landmine. Run into it, and you get into trouble. Every time she met that accursed so called Knight, he was always managing to find a way to ruin that moment of the day, just with his mere attitude, lack of respect, and just him talking to her.

_Just by TALKING to me!_ May stabbed her dinner with a fork at the thought.

April sighed from across the cafeteria table. "Jeremy again?"

May grumbled at the name. "The jerk…"

"Yes, May, we've all heard you call him that at least twenty times today already."

"And it's true! Where is that stupid Zepp already? I just want that stupid jerk off this ship already! It's not like that floating island moves at light speed…" May let the rest of the sentence die away with more mumbles while shoving a piece of pork into her mouth.

"Well it's not like you two try to go out of your way to kill each other." April responded thoughtfully.

May snorted, "What are you talking about?"

"I seem to notice that both of you are trying to avoid each other like the plague."

The young captain scrunched up her nose at the thought that the Mayship's insensitive jerk would actually try avoiding her. "Explain that to the fact we already fought three times already today."

April gave sheepish shrug. "Well, considering how fast you two walk around, I wouldn't be surprised if you two kept running into each other. The ship is only so big, you know."

May was a little silent at the thought before making a 'hmph' noise, and returning to her meal. "I still don't like him."

April gave a sly grin. "Well, it's true that opposites attract, so it'd be only logical that those who are alike should repel."

May gave a blank face before she realized what April was implying. "ARE YOU SAYING HE'S LIKE ME!?"

"Joking! Joking!"

"YOU'D BETTER BE JUST JOKING!"

-

-

-

Jeremy, leaned against the railing of the exposed hallways of the airship, stared upwards into the orange mist sky they were traveling though, an empty aspirin bottle held between his teeth, since being finished but not yet being disposed. The cool air brushing against his head, and the gentle thrum of the engines gave an interesting sense of peace.

_She is so annoying. Bitch._ His conciseness continued to affirm

**The question is why you won't just kill her… or maim her or something. **Then responded his mental sense of reason.

_Obvious. It's too troublesome. Then I'd have to kill the captain, then everybody after that, and I wouldn't be able to get to Zepp._

**You're going to kill them anyways.**

_Yes, but not in MID-FLIGHT._

**I think you're just soft on kids.**

_When the hell did I come up with that? I killed plenty of children in the past._

**Well, you're not squeamish about killing them if it's necessary. But I don't see you mass-murdering everyone you see either.**

_I still kill them._

**But you don't like killing them.**

_This is a stupid train of thought. Everything would have been simpler if that dumb Gear was still alive, but no. That goddamn chef…Well, I'll just have to wait for life to drop another Gear or something into my lap. There's really nothing left in the planet that can-_

"Jeremy?" came the quiet voice. Colt twisted his head slightly for his eyes to notice the girl with the blue hair inside the darkening halls.

"Huh, yah?" Jeremy made the noise through his open mouth that was still holding the medicine bottle.

"Umm… you know that right now it is dinner, right?"

Jeremy straightened out and got back on his feet. Removing the bottle from his mouth and throwing it off the balcony and into the air, he replied. "Yeah, I'll eat later."

Dizzy still seemed concerned. "But you're going to be by yourself."

"So?"

Dizzy had a surprised look. "You like being alone?"

"No. It's a horrible life. You get desensitized from being human."

"Then… why do you try to be alone when you don't like it?"

Jeremy, seeing this was going to take a while, leaned back against the railing again. "It's safer this way."

"Safer?"

"For myself, mostly…" Why the hell am I talking about my social life? "I'm sure your friends appreciate it as well, not being around an insensitive monster like me." Jeremy added on with a cheesy chuckle after.

"Do you really think you're a horrible person?" Dizzy asked.

"It helps me stay alive."

"I don't think you're a bad person."

"Oh?"

Dizzy walked over to Colt's side. "Whenever we pass by each other, you look more angry than you are bad. Like I said, many people used to think I'm a horrible person. For a long time I lived alone. For a while I also used to think that the only way I could live was to be alone…"

The blue haired sailor then smiled warmly. "But look now. I have friends, and I get to see the world."

Jeremy smirked and looked back at his companion. "So people thought you were a monster?"

"Just like you think you are one."

"Not quite. Monsters are renowned because they kill humans without remorse. Tell me, have you ever kill…no, murdered anybody?"

Dizzy's eyes widened, "What?"

Jeremy imitated a gun with his fingers and pointed at the opposite side of the hallway, imagining the escaping child that stole one of his bullets. "Have you ever spilt anybody's blood… see the regret on their face well up as they realize… their time to repent has already passed… have you ever done that?"

"N-no." Was the stammered reply.

Jeremy saw the kid's back he was aiming at explode in a shower of blood. "That's why you can make friends and see the world. You were never even a monster to begin with, merely… misunderstood."

"A-and you killed people?"

"Lots of them." Jeremy calmly replied. "All my friends and family are dead. All that's left are enemies and memories…"

"You never regretted killing them?"

"No. I often look into their twisted faces of death to remind myself…"

"Of what?"

"Perhaps today…"

"Perhaps today?" Dizzy was confused by the meaning.

"Perhaps today." Jeremy confirmed, not bothering to explain.

"And us?" Dizzy managed to ask, a certain fear gathering in her stomach.

Jeremy hummed in though while giving a once over of Dizzy. "Don't know any reason why to kill any of you…"

"What about the second self-reliant Gear?"

"It's already dead."

"But saying it were still alive, you'd try to kill it too?"

"…Maybe, but then again it all hangs on the 'Perhaps today' thing."

"Oh…"

Jeremy's calm exterior broke into a smile that felt a little too false for Dizzy. "Anyways, we shouldn't go on about my boring life. I think you better go to dinner. I'll catch up later, okay?"

"Ri-right!" Dizzy again stammered before Colt, now knowing a little more than she needed too. She raced off quickly. As soon and she left his sight, Jeremy stared back up into the sky and groaned. Meanwhile his hands automatically reached to unscrew another aspirin bottle, as the pains began to grow again.

"Come on people, it's been only ten years after the biggest World War ever, why is me killing such a big deal?"

_"Whenever we pass by each other, you look more angry than you are bad. Like I said, many people used to think I'm a horrible person. For a long time I lived alone. For a while I also used to think that the only way I could live was to be alone…" Dizzy's statement echoed back to Jeremy's ears._

_She thinks I can be redeemed. Bah, exactly like Boss Commander before I left…_

Jeremy spun around on the railing to look down towards the earth now. Here, once proud grasslands of the past were now large wastelands, gaping scars criss-crossing the dirt from his view, and giant blasts and craters scattered across the browned soil.

_Oh yeah…here… I remember here…if we wanted to repel the Gears, we had to get them out of…Kansas was it?_

_"Don't die! I've lost too many friends, I won't lose you too! Somebody find a doctor!" He yelled. A Gear's handiwork was bored through my side._

_"Why? I may not be a Gear like the rumors say… but I'm a monster none the less… I deserve and want to die…"_

_Cough, cough. Predictable puking of blood._

_Damn, I got his shirt screwed up._

_"Don't say that! I don't care what you are or what you did! You're still under my command! I order you to try and stay alive!"_

_"That…might be…problema…tic…"_

Jeremy finished the bottle of aspirins, and tossed that one over the side of the balcony as well.

_Redemption at the price of humanity?_ Jeremy snorted at the thought, and began to walk to the cafeteria under the blue night, the ceiling lights giving a friendly glow to the ship's interiors.

"Tonight's lasagna night… hmmm…"

-

-

-

It was the next morning when "it" happened. Jeremy, seeing that he had run out of aspirin bottles finally, decided to find the medical area of the ship and raid its stores of whatever headache removing miracle drug that managed to survive up to now. At this Jeremy tucked his gun into his pants again, and slung his travel sack over his shoulder, headed out in search of the infirmary. Leaving before breakfast, Colt was hoping to get what he wanted before whatever nurse finished her morning meal, thus the hallways were empty, the baby-blue morning lighting up the halls in a sort of sleepy atmosphere.

A resounding boom went out throughout the entire Mayship, rocking the frame to and fro with such force, Jeremy fell and crashed against the opposite side of the hallway.

"What's that supposed to be?" Jeremy managed to say while he shut one of his eyes and gritted his teeth from the pain in his back from hitting the wall. Alarm klaxons started to sound intermediately. Though there were several different tunes to signify the trouble befalling the ship, Jeremy was not exactly learned in this fact, leaving Jeremy only one option.

Run to where the trouble is to see if he can save his ride, and guess on the way.

_Fire? Enemy attack? How? I thought this crap ass ride would at least be able to protect itself. What's going on?_ Jeremy charged towards the other side of the aircraft, seeing that if it were his side of the ship that actually got hit, the explosion would have done more than knock him down.

Up ahead, the sounds of steel against steel rang loud, telling Jeremy of combat. Entering the smoke scattered corridor, destruction layered everywhere, he saw several pirates trying to deal with a new threat, both captains involved as well.

In the middle of the trouble was a woman Jeremy had never seen on the ship before, obviously the intruder, by whatever shape or form. She was a curvy and well-busted slut, wearing an array of red leather that showed of her every angle without being completely naked. Shoulder length black hair fell from out of her red pointed hat, which looked similar to Jeremy's own, with the exception of the ghoulish face design on the front. Also somehow latched onto her back was a blue-green electric guitar. Deep blue eyes were matched with her arrogant grin.

"Geez, you're all such irritating pricks. No wonder He hates you all so much, don't you agree, you hybrid bitch?" The woman growled excitedly. Using her one arm, Jeremy noticed she was pinning an acquaintance of his against the wall by her neck, allowing her a choked gasp as the reply.

"Let Dizzy go, you witch!" May shouted from her safe distance, Jeremy noticing momentarily she had an anchor easily held in her grasp while Johnny was holding that Japanese Cane thing.

_Dizzy? Hybrid bitch? What? This is troublesome, guess I'll have to do something as well, considering she's delaying my trip._

Jeremy began to raise his free palm and arm to prepare to get his sneak hit in first, but then he realized people he needed still alive were around.

_Damnit! I don't need eyewitnesses of my abilities! Aggh…now I have to waste a shot… Jeremy then pulled his magnum out from behind him, releasing the safety and pulling back the hammer._

The musician whore seemed to hear the following click, and understood what it meant surprisingly, for someone existing in this age. Immediately, she dragged Dizzy off the wall and held her in front as a human shield. Now that her back was unobstructed by the wall and in full view of Jeremy's sight, his eyes widened in shock.

"What?!"

May and Johnny then turned, surprised at Jeremy's seemingly sudden arrival, while the older captain frowned at the new problem arising, based on the Knight's claims.

"This isn't good." Johnny murmured.

Though his gun was kept trained on Dizzy's back, Jeremy's mind was racing with the new information. Hanging out from the back of Dizzy's shirt were two frail wings, one black, the other white. Following out from where the spine usually ended, a thick black tail came out, and continued into a tip that reached to the girl's ankles. There was a yellow bow tie on it as well, but screw that!

_Two wings… and a tail… but that means… but it should be…how…why would the pirates keep her? That's why they all seemed edgy about my wanting the second Justice… why she was hunted…why she talked that way… she…it is the second Justice…My efforts were not wasted… I still have a chance to…but that guitar slut's in the way._

"Oi, red bitch, I want the Gear." Jeremy coldly called out to the sneering figure behind the Gear, his spirits brighter again, even if he didn't show it. Half of the musician's face peeked out from behind her cover, the eye purple this time.

"Oh what's this? Not a pirate of course…" She mused.

"Expensive cargo. Give me the Gear."

"Hmm, Let me think about that-no."

Jeremy growled something unintelligible. The musician's lone eye studied Colt for a few moments before speaking again.

"Say, you don't act like a regular bounty hunter, considering you haven't shot this Gear yet. Why do you want her alive?"

"None of your business."

She looked back up at Dizzy then and grinned. "Well, if you don't have a good reason, I guess I should go and kill her now." Increasing the pressure of her hold, the she began to slowly crush the Gear's neck. As Colt heard coughs, he frowned as he tried to quickly think of something.

_Okay, crap, she's dying faster now. The closer I get, the faster she'll choke. Umm…that whore looks like she think I won't shoot, so I have a free shot…I need that Gear alive and in good condition, otherwise I've wasted my time. What's there to shoot and distract the slut?_

_Umm…_

_Hmm…_

_There._

Jeremy noticed that they all had the fortunate luck of having the entire commotion situated right next to an emergency escape hatch, in case of some dilemma that needed everybody off the ship. The entire hatch was only held closed by a simple flimsy lever handle that one would swivel to open.

Jeremy immediately shifted his aim towards the handle and with a trained arm, squeezed off a shot with no problem. The thundering smaller explosion of the magnum shocked everyone, leaving them with a ping of a handle snapping off, before more hell broke loose.

The hatch swung to the side slowly before being caught in the wind outside, and was thrown open, the smoke now kicking up everywhere, and the wind nearly blowing everybody off their feet. Predictably the musician used her free hand to cover her face from the wind.

_Got to get her!_ Jeremy dashed in with surprising speed, and the red woman was thankfully surprised that Jeremy's cold face was suddenly beside her, next to the open hatch. Since his one arm still held the travel bag, Jeremy used the hand holding the gun to swing it towards the woman's temple. Though she was able to block the attack, her face grimaced in controlled pain.

_Defiantly not a regular bounty hunter. His attack pierced my arm, but there's no blade. I can feel something inside my arm. Annoying bastard._ "Fucker. If you're so damn obsessed over the bitch, then HAVE HER!" Snarling, she used her grip on her hostage and swung her around with amazing force, catching the Dizzy club's lower body across Colt's face, knocking him down and scattering him across the floor with his objects. She left her back open the Johnny and May, though, from which the older captain capitalized. Before the red woman knew it, she felt something lightning fast smash into her back, threatening her balance while she saw Jeremy quickly rushing back to a standing position, his gun at ready.

_Damn. I wasted too much time messing around. Better finish this quick and get out of here. The red woman thought to herself as she landed on top of her hostage, whom served as a winded cushion._

From her lying position, she planted her foot in Johnny's stomach, as the pirate was trying to take further advantage of the opening by rushing in, only to be kicked back by the attack. Before Jeremy could attack either, the Red woman was already up, and thrusting Dizzy's face into the gun barrel.

With the Gear shield between her and Jeremy, while she kept and eye on the downed captain being supported by his flunkies, the musician gave an animalistic grin.

"Well, then this has been fun, fucking up your little toy boat, but I've got things to do, and this hybrid bitch has got to go." She concluded in a smart manner, jerking her head to Dizzy when she mentioned her.

There was a blur of motion before Dizzy began screaming on the outside of the Mayship that slowly dwindled away, while the Musician disappeared in a fast moving red blur of her own.

"Dizzy!" was the combined cries of the pirate crew as they gathered around the open hatch.

Jeremy, gun still raised, blinked as he finally caught up with the sudden motion. "What the hell?"

_No! I can't only find out now to see my best chance of freedom turn into street pizza like this! She's mine! SHE'S MINE!_

A sense of purpose, and a sudden energy of violence engulfed Jeremy at this thought, grabbing the travel bag of the floor and hoisting over his shoulder once again, he paced rapidly over to the crowd.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He gave a snarling hoarse shout, as he thrust his foot into the side of the first pirate beside him, with enough force to bowl the entire group over. Before anyone could react, Jeremy as well jumped out of the hatch and dropped out of view.

As if problems were a candy a child could not stop eating, another dull explosion gave a tremor throughout the ship.

"Johnny! One of the engines exploded!"

The captain was up with authority again, "Emergency landing! Everybody to their stations NOW!"

Several loud shouts of confirmation followed as the hallway emptied in seconds, leaving Johnny to stare down towards the woodlands below.

_This is bad. One bounty hunter is enough, but now we have a lunatic musician, and a heartless monster with a gun._

We don't have enough time.


	4. 7 Heavens and 9 Hells

Moments before it hit the ground, a pointed deep purple coil, flat as paper, wrapped itself around the tip of the tallest tree in the area. Tightening, the coil broke the descent of the falling object, slowing it down at the expense of the tree, which bent to the point it nearly broke, but the purple implement let go and disappeared under the cover of the green, snapping the tree at break neck speeds to its original position, shaking leaves and twigs free all over the place.

At the base of the tree, Jeremy stood, having just stretching out of his bent position to break his drop. He instinctively reached for his aspirin when he realized a problem.

_Oh God…I'm supposed to find a Gear in a middle of a forest, miles long? WITH NO ASPIRIN!? This is like a needle in a haystack with a time limit on it. Why the hell did that whore have to attack before I finished raiding the infirmary of the ship?_

Jeremy, at this point, was forced with only one option. Pick a direction, and look in that direction. Since Jeremy didn't even see where Dizzy landed, all he could do was walk forward.

Suddenly his head began to hurt.

-

-

-

Wind and wood stung Dizzy's face as she crashed through the tree branches. The needles of the evergreen first scratched her before she crashed into the branch in her path of falling. At her speed, the object crashing into her stomach came with enough force to release a mixture of blood and bile through her mouth, as she continued through the branch, eventually slowing down enough to simply bounce off one stem to another before the mess landed heavily on her side at the bottom.

She didn't move.

_Get up child._ The deep voice in Dizzy's mind commanded. The Gear shivered at the voice as she felt her body burn in pain.

"N-Necro…I can't…" Dizzy sobbed into the ground.

Get up child, and move. It is the only way you'll live.

"It hurts…"

A calmer woman's voice broke into Dizzy's thoughts. **Dizzy, please. If the Musician knows where you landed, she could be heading here any moment. We can't protect you as well as we could in your condition. Please, you must try to walk.**

At this Dizzy tried to lift her body off the ground, only to find her right arm unresponsive through its numbing pain. Using her remaining limb, she managed to get to her knees, but rising too fast her head pained and her balance ruined again, leaving her to helplessly flop to her side again.

"It just hurts too much…" she moaned.

_Then be more careful next time._

And she was. Shutting one eye to keep out the blood running down her face, Dizzy managed to find a stumbling, limping, swaying gait through the forest, her left arm wrapped around her side as she hobbled away, leaving heavy gasps and blood behind her.

-

-

-

Jeremy barely managed to throw his body onto the safety of the tree, instead of altogether missing and throwing himself onto the ground. Beads of cold sweat was running fresh down his head, while he sucked in breath so loudly just to make sure he could hear himself breathing. Heat pricks scattered across his body, and the pain was so brilliant across his mind it numbed nearly every other sense of life, except for thought

_How long have I been walking down this path…? Hours? Weeks? Centuries? I can't really tell. Is time moving backwards or forwards? Is it still? The sun…is it moving backwards? Am I really walking? Am I floating? The shadows around me… what are they?_

Passing through this existence, Jeremy saw shadows in the distance, some which looked like him walking in the other direction, others looking like Dizzy, others like a hundred of his Boss Commander, one like a skipping laughing May, and so on.

Jeremy, despite May's jeering cries at his pathetic form, grabbed the side of the bright white tree, and pried himself off it, continuing to move forward through the noir-colored mess, trance-like, dull eyes in a body that swayed around crazily like a corpse trying to walk.

_Corpse trying to walk… isn't that just me? Aspirin… hides my true self…a pathetic shell…a cadaver that rots as it walks the earth…one that needs to be buried…_

Another pain came through the back of his head like he was shot. His whole body jerked and dropped to the ground from the pain, as if her were shot in the back of his head. Half of his face in the dirt, he still thought.

_Is that ambulances I hear? This pain…this… "headache"…I have to calm it somehow… I need anything to make this feel better…_

Somehow, a sound managed to pierce the haze.

_Water on rocks…running water…cool water… good water…to my left…must… get there…_

Jeremy's eye swiveled to the featureless black May silhouette sitting under the shade of the tree, a pearly white smile taking up the face, as she pointed at him and laughed none stop like a machine. Jeremy growled.

_But first…_

-

-

-

Dizzy twisted her head to the right suddenly as she heard a tree groan and fall to its side in the distance.

Destruction. The half-Gear's thoughts suddenly turned to the Red Musician, and whether she was nearby or not already.

_No, it is not the Musician. I have been listening to the steps of that person while we walked. It's uneven, erratic. The person probably destroyed that tree out of insanity, not of desire. The Musician is firmer than that._ Necro noted.

"Then… who is it?"

**If my assumptions were correct…it would be Jeremy Colt.**

"Jeremy!? But… he's just a normal human… he couldn't be able to follow me here!" Dizzy managed to eek out, though it took a lot of her energy.

_Wrong. I knew there was some reason behind his headaches…I was able to smell his blood through all the other blood smells on him. His blood smelled fake, artificial. His headaches are not normal. HE is not normal. We need to get you out of this maze of wood as soon as possible._

"How?"

**I sense water. There should be a stream nearby. If you follow that, it should connect to a river, which is the way out. Just try to avoid Jeremy.**

"Okay..." was the only reply as hair covered her bowed head as she gasped and limped after the stream.

It was hours before the stream she followed cleared the forest away with more rounded rocks taking up the side of the waterway. True to Dizzy's white wing guardian, Undine, the stream connected to a giant green muddy flow of water that coursed through. The walking had nearly taken all semblance of life of her, only allowing her a twitch in the mouth that was supposed to be a smile. Fatigue was about to make her go unconscious.

Splash. The sound of something nearby trudging through water. Turning, Dizzy watched helplessly as a familiar face was walking knee deep in the rapids, but never falling over. Several times a wave hit his back; soaking him and everything he carried with him, but here merely bent over to comply with the water before continuing onwards, slowly and surely, but in an eerie manner, like he was missing a soul, hunched over and tired in his strides. Nothing at all like the louder incarnation back in the ship.

Jeremy stopped in front of his quarry, and turned his head to face Dizzy. The eyes were sick, brown voids, with no shine in them.

"Jeremy…"

"Found you…"

Jeremy fell down then. Dizzy, in her weakness, herself suddenly grew a desire to just give up and go unconscious for a little while.

Dizzy fell down after.

-

-

-

In a certain bar in London during the deadest time of the night, Jeremy and Dizzy sat side by side in front of the counter. To compensate for the previous weeks of his horrible withdrawal, Jeremy was drinking down massive amounts of alcohol and medicines to alleviate the pains that had been plaguing him. Of course, even with this amount, it would neither make him intoxicated nor remove the pains altogether.

Dizzy wore a large boring trench coat to cover her features, but her face still bore patches of gauze, and bandaging that spanned her body, and completely covering her twisted right arm, which remained unused as she sipped her water with her left.

Jeremy drank the last of his current concoction before slamming the glass back on the wood surface with a content sigh.

"So then, Dizzy…"

The target of the comment turned her head, expectedly.

"…how's the arm?"

"Oh… that?" Dizzy tried to smile as best she could at Jeremy, considering their how their relationship stood at the moment. "It's getting better."

Jeremy hummed in acknowledgment. "Picked up a word on the streets that some of your buddies are docked here."

"Johnny's here?"

The bald bar tender snorted. "More gangsters! Bah, you're all alike, thinking it's cool to have midnight conferences, at the expense of my sleep. Some great caretaker of the city you are…"

Jeremy stared back un-amused. "Oh, shut up before I rape your daughter or something." The bartender snorted again, but remained silent after.

"Anyways Dizzy, from what I managed to pick up, your buddies are at a warehouse dock in the more industrial areas of London. So, being my job to save your ass for the moment, I suppose it's best if I get you back to your buddies. Even if it means weeks of effort…wasted…bah."

Silence.

"No comment, Dizzy?"

"No…" Dizzy in some odd way did feel sorry that Jeremy's effort was to waste, ever since he said those things the forest… not that he could remember them, though.

Jeremy shrugged threw several crumpled bills of world dollars onto the counter after. Getting off from his seat he picked up his replenished travel sack from the ground.

"Then time to go."

-

-

-

True enough, the night covered body of the Mayship was at that certain industrial dock, rolling lazily in the water while lights glowed on the rain slicked cobble stone and give everything a distinct green tint. Across from the Mayship sat several warehouses, which sat unattended for the night, while more lamps attached along the corrugated tin walls gave more light to the area. Though night had fallen, a few portholes on the Mayship still glowed yellow with light.

_Looks like something out of an oil painting or a post card._ Jeremy decided while he sat against a pile of steel crates, and peeked over the top of one beside him. Dizzy was on the other side of Jeremy, sitting politely on her knees, but with a confused look.

Instead of merely walking up to the Mayship and saying 'hi, we're back', Jeremy opted to come in quietly along the dock side, so they'd approach the pirates' capital ship from the rear, but before they got any closer, Jeremy suddenly halted their advance, and placed them in their current situation.

"Jeremy…?"

"Shush!" Jeremy whispered back fiercely, throwing one hand back to stop Dizzy from talking, while he kept on watching, studying everything possible the street could possibly give away.

_The quiet… something's wrong… what is it? It all looks okay… why do I want to not go further? Is it paranoia? Is this just me not wanting to let Dizzy go? Just… I can't let us walk right now…_

"ATTACK!"

Immediately, droves of gangly, thin punks charged out from dark covers towards the ship. All of them were armed with swords, spears, and other weapons, and none of them looking rudimentary or homemade.

_What…the…hell?_ "Dizzy, stay quiet." Jeremy watched annoyed as the noisy group ran past the ex-knight and half-Gear, while more lights and shadowy figures appeared around the hull of the Mayship. As the attacking group clambered onto the Mayship's wing that hung over the dock, the pirates in the dark, hastily assembled, already dropped down onto them. Jeremy could easily tell Johnny from the rest, with his flamboyant jumping and dashing from one punk to the next, with the black coat of his trailing behind him like another shadow floating above the others.

_What the hell? Does he ever change clothes?_

Out of the uniform group of ugly hooligans that poured in, one of them stood by and shouted orders.

"Take whatever you want! But keep the Gear alive! Boss wants it!"

Among the cheers and few remarks of keeping the girls for pets, Jeremy's face darkened with the words

_This is getting too weird. Gah… now I have to save the pirates as well…_

"Hey, what do we have here?" An obnoxious voice chanted from behind. Jeremy and Dizzy turned in tandem to the words, facing a sneering teenager with a thin sword in his hand, tapping the weapon against his shoulder in what he thought was a intimidating manner.

Before anyone could react, Jeremy was already glaring coldly at the punk.

"Drop dead."

The teenager immediately jerked like someone poked him from behind, and dropped his weapon to the ground. Trying to say something, the teen only had blood pour out, with traces of purple reflecting amongst the bloody mess.

Dizzy stared dumbfounded as the corpse fell to the ground before turning back to Jeremy, who was filling his mouth with more aspirin.

Before Dizzy could speak, Jeremy already interrupted again. "Dizzy, you know as well as I do, they're all going to die tonight. Don't question my methods. If it saves your ass, I'll do it. Now stay put, hopefully you can take care of yourself and my bag by now."

Dizzy again tried to say something, but held against it, bowing her head instead. Jeremy stepped out from the crates, seeing a small group of the gang staying on the docks, cheering for the men on the Mayship itself. Jeremy prepped his abilities, and kept them inside his hands and feet.

No use revealing how much of a freak he was if the pirates are here.

Luckily, the band of hooligans weren't completely senseless, as they heard the clack of Colt's shoes against the cobblestone. Immediately the party swirled around with all pointy weapons facing Jeremy.

"Who the fucking-" The first one started before Jeremy arced his fist over the sword and into the man's face. As the man fell away dead, his face bled uncontrollably, with a momentary tint of purple disappearing back into Jeremy's hand.

Jeremy immediately danced around the untrained swings, letting one foot crash into the stomach of one man, launching the man while more red sprayed from his wound, another in the neck with more blood spilling out from the punch, the next being slapped in the side, leaving more rivers of life spill with every blow Jeremy dealt on one man and the next, each screaming if they weren't given the mercy of being hit in the neck or above.

Stupidly, the punks on the Mayship itself saw the lone man slaughtering their friends on the dock, and jumped down to join the fight, thinning the ranks that fought the pirates themselves, which was the whole objective of the fight. But punks knew only how to fight, not who or where.

As Johnny noticed less people to fight, he finally was able to fight and notice where the screams were emanating from. Johnny, in shock at the sight, had to drop his shades, just to make sure he was seeing exactly what he was seeing.

Johnny saw Jeremy dodge a charging man with a spear, and shoving him away with open palms, only to see the spearman back away with his arms clutching his chest as he dropped to ground, writhing and screaming as he died with the rest.

Eventually, all that was left was a shaky defense of scared teenagers backing away with swords held out in both their quivering hands, and any semblance of leadership bleeding to death on the ground around them. Jeremy snickered a bit as he toyed with them, seeing the fear in their eyes as they jumped away as he mockingly feinted a motion this way and that, as if every step he took meant it could be their last.

_Still too many, if I let them leave now, there'd be enough substantial eyewitness evidence that a freak of nature exists._ Without a second thought, Jeremy dove back into the screaming crowd as he pummeled his way through whatever flesh he saw. Finishing off one, Jeremy saw three more running away.

_Still too many. They gotta leave afraid. With their every step, I own their lives._

With his smooth trained motion, Jeremy easily pried his Magnum from behind him and fired a single shot that had the closest escaping boy's head explode in a shower of gray and red.

Jeremy jokingly blew away the smoke that trailed out of the exposed barrel of the gun.

"Jeremy." A voice stated from behind.

"Hmm?" Jeremy hummed as he turned around. Johnny straight face clearly showed one of borderline murderous intent. "Oh, it's you."

"What are you doing here?"

Jeremy shrugged. "Decided I had enough of babysitting your little Gear pet, and decided to drop her back with you. Got any coffee stocked on your ship? Staying up so late really doesn't help my headaches."

-

-

-

There was coffee, albeit not very good coffee. Wasn't tangy enough. While Dizzy was in the infirmary, Jeremy found himself back in the Real Captain's Room, drinking the coffee along with Johnny with his own liquor.

"I thought you wanted Dizzy's bounty." Johnny spoke up.

"I measure danger by money, but it's usually not the money that I'm really after when I bounty hunt."

"Then what is it you look for?"

"Dangerous people."

"Then why did you bring Dizzy back?"

"She may be dangerous, but that's sort of negated when you find her bleeding, broken, and suffering minor concussions."

"What is it exactly you want Dizzy for? You take care of her, because you want her to be dangerous?"

"That…is none of your concern, since you won't be seeing me for a while, what with this whole issue of that Guitar Whore recently, and those punks. Who are those losers I slaughtered anyways?"

_Slaughter. Very good choice of words, buddy… but how did you kill them?_ "They've been giving me trouble recently. They're flunkies from the Corisione Family. Some Italian group. They had a real beef with us, and seem to be really picking up the heat on us recently. Nearly every public port we've landed in or passed by seems to have some of them there."

"Persistent."

"Annoying."

"Well, persistent and annoying like gnats. And killed with as much respect."

"You didn't have to kill them, you know."

"What, you think you can knock them ALL unconscious?" replied Jeremy with sarcastic incredulous

"You killed them while they ran. They gave up already. They gave up even before they ran. They're just teenagers!"

"Well, don't expect the life expectancy rate to rise any faster after a ware than during it."

The door opened then, revealing a tired looking May, one so tired she seemed not in the mood to notice Jeremy's existence.

"Captain?"

"Yes, May?"

"Dizzy's fine now. She's asleep at the moment. We should be taking off soon."

"I'll be at the bridge shortly." Johnny looked back at Jeremy. "You know I can't have you stay here. You're too dangerous to everybody."

Jeremy shrugged again. "It's alright. I've done what's needed to be done."

-

-

-

Jeremy snorted as he watched the mass of lights rise off the water in the distance and take off into the sky.

_And there goes the nicest girl I'm going to kill yet, leaving on a jet plane… don't know when she'll be back again. I can't believe I still know that song._

As Colt swallowed more medicine, he inspected the blood stained scenery around him.

_This Corisione Family is weird. These punks probably don't know how to handle a weapon outside a led pipe and a wood plank. Where'd all these fancy swords and crap come from?_

_"Take whatever you want! But keep the Gear alive! Boss wants it!"_

_"Nearly every public port we've landed in or passed by seems to have some of them there."_

_They want Dizzy…that's weird. Even if they had men in every port, it'd take several days for the group to attack, if their information networks were spread out so wide. How do they keep track of Dizzy?_

_I ought to pay a visit to this Don Corisione. Perhaps he can spare a trick or two on how to keep an eye in the sky…_


	5. Thalt Shall Not Kill Humans

No matter how you looked at it, Paris on the map, was still the majority of the space taken up in France, the massive city that ate up lush pastures and towns and united it under one city. Then Justice came and wiped out Paris, working from the outside in, ruining nearly everything sacred to the people save the dead center of the city, which still remains. Up to now, the power of the International Police Force, or IPF, and the European branch situated there, has kept the city today safe, as the people slowly rebuilt the ruins of the city that surround them.

But the further towards the edge of the city you go, the less concentrated the IPF is, and here crime rules, as kings in the ruins and slums of Paris, trapping the City of Lights rebuilt in a moat of its own evil, on the verge of separating the it altogether from the outside world, save the fact that both crime and peace needs the same thing to survive.

Money from the outside, which is why foreign people still manage to make it safely through the Paris slums, into the center of the rebuilding city.

And also the reason why Trace, big time crime informant, was literally running for his life through the ruins of the half gutted crime city of Paris. His aging body, heading into its thirties, heaved and gasped as it drenched his clothing in sweat under the bright sun. He had to get away, had to escape to the inner city, where people had a problem with people killing other people. He had to get away from that… freak, after what he said.

_Trace watched in fear as his bodyguards got ripped to pieces in front of the Bounty Hunter. His crystal cold brown eyes under his hat stared intently at the informant._

_"Crime only wakes up at night, so there won't be any eyewitnesses, and I'm quite sure I'm not letting you get away either…"_

Thunk.

Brick exploded in the wall, as Trace stopped in front of the purple long blade imbedded in front of him. Looking down the length of the weapon, he saw the blade disappear into the shadow of an alleyway, with the silhouette of the man's figure inside.

Trace, whimpering and panting, looked around for options of escape, and managed to see that the blade imbedded into the wall of an abandoned apartment building, of which he was lucky enough to be a few steps from the entrance. Immediately, he threw himself inside and continued to run as far as he could, hoping to get himself lost from his hunting adversary.

Though impossibly dark, the informant continued to feel and bump his way through one hallway to another, making his way through rooms without walls and corridors connected by lack of ceilings or floor sections. Trace simply just ran in order to get as lost as possible, hoping that the sheer size of the location would be enough of a shield against the bounty hunter. Eventually he stopped in the middle of the void he was running in, and simply sat down exhausted and convinced enough distance was crossed to be safe.

The sounds of hinges came upon Trace suddenly, as the door he was leaning his back against disappeared behind him. The entire hallway shone with sunlight from the ruined and world exposed flat behind Trace, as the shadow and attached voice of the man who opened the door loomed over the poor escaping soul.

"You know, your breathing is so damn loud it echoes throughout the entire building, and you step so loudly, too."

Trace immediately gave a hoarse shriek of horror and scrabbled into a run away from the sunlight. Though he ran fast, something immediately wrapped around Trace's ankle, and firmly tripped the informant up. Before he knew it, he was being smoothly pulled back towards the sun and shadows, clawing like a primitive beast in fear of death, fingers attempting to dig into the rotted wood floor. Trace was then thrown onto his back in front of the doorway, the man in it doing little to block the sun's rays from ruining Trace's eyes as something stabbed through his limbs, pining him down to the floor. Trace managed to give a strangled cry of pain before a booted foot landed on his chest, forcing up a few coughs before the bounty hunter leaned forward and talked.

"So then, are we going to have a nice simple talk, or do I have to beat shit to make you understand?"

"Wh-what do you want?"

The sun-lit figure twisted the foot on Trace's chest a little while humming in thought. In response, the objects in the informant's arms were also twisting around in tandem. Trace emitted something between a gritted growl and another whimper.

"Just a few answers to a few questions…truthfully of course, knowing you damn syndicate people."

Trace twisted his face in anger up at his captor. "What the hell would you want to know?"

"Well, most of your payroll comes from being the Corisione Family's little snitch…" The man leaned down with a sneer, "Why don't you be helpful and do a little snitching for me too?"

"About what?"

"Oh… like where the Don's going to be tonight."

Trace growled "Fuck yo-"

Immediately, flashes of purple were everywhere, and the Corisone Snitch felt dozens of sharp blades firmly pressed against every angle of his head.

The captor's sneer widened a little. "Come now, be a little more courteous, and I will too. Ruin my mood, I ruin your face." He then proceeded to withdraw a capsule from the rest of his silhouetted form and consume several pills within the bottle. Trace was at nerve's end already.

"Lo-look, I can't betray the Corisione's! They're going to know, then they'll kill me!"

"And if you don't tell me, I'll be the one killing you. The difference is I'll kill you right now, but if you piss the Corisione's, at least you have a chance to get away. So… are we going to play Twenty Questions or Russian roulette? I have time enough for both." The figure announced, dropping the empty aspirin bottle and replacing it with a gun in his hand.

"O-okay… just don't kill me… I'll-I'll talk…"

"Then, where is he going to be tonight?" The man's tone became dangerously serious then. Trace just began throwing out everything he could remember then.

"The Don's throwing the biggest drug smuggling run ever he's holding it in the warehouse South side of Paris he's personally looking over this it was his own idea don't kill me I'm married…" the voice spluttered out in fast intervals as fast as the hurried breaths would allow.

_Man, he must be new to this business…or something… either that or he's a really good actor…Still, even if he wasn't I'd still have to make sure he doesn't sound the alarm._

"C-come on! Let me go! I- I won't tell anyone!" Trace continued to plea.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say."

"No! I really won't-"

Trace's head rolled away from the pinned body after that. As the weapons pinning the informant's body disappeared on command, Jeremy walked back through the door and closed it behind him.

-

-

-

In the South side of the Paris slums in the dead of night, only Colt walked. Like the late Trace said, this was going to be one of the biggest operations by the Corisione Family yet, and anybody with any semblance of logic would leave the criminal hotspot. No matter how strong you were, dealing with the Corisione Family was simply no.

But Colt continued to pace his way through the deserted dirt streets. The moonlight was particularly strong this night, so no need of any illumination by the Bounty Hunter's own devices.

Then came two voices of cheap laughter. Jeremy stopped. Just ahead, two young boys holding quality long swords based on Seikishidan models walked out of the shadows, chuckling to each with good jokes.

_Sentries… figures…_ "Oi" The two guards turned around at the beckon, facing the shoulder slumped Colt. "You with the Corisiones?"

One of them gave a sneer and rested the sharp blade on his shoulder, "And who the hell is this loser?" He spoke in a tone that seemed to touch upon the stereotype "Ghetto gangstas" from Colt's memories.

"Where's is the warehouse of the major drug trade?"

This alarmed the two, as they grabbed unto the handles of their blades with both hands "How the hell did you know that?"

"…Small birds… Where is the warehouse?" Colt continued.

"Fuck man! Like we're going to tell you!" The two closed in on Jeremy as he glared at them.

"Don't make this hard on yourselves. I'm giving you a chance to get away."

"Oh yeah? I think we should be the one to give you the fucking run for your ass!"

Jeremy snorted at the ignorance in front of him. "You people swear too much…"

But even though he said that, the Bounty Hunter had a strange feeling he wasn't exactly free of the same accusation himself.

-

-

-

All activity ceased at the sight of the gigantic double doors, the main entrance to the crate stuffed warehouse, being forced to swing inwards from a force outside. Obviously, this was cue for every muscle-bound idiot to drop their current possession in favor of a good sword or likewise weapon nearby. While a good sized crowd of defense gathered in front of the door, a well dressed and rather fattish looking Italian, with signs of sitting too much, and graying hair, took up the back with more protection around him.

The door then stopped being pushed inwards, leaving a narrow gap between the doors that allowed only one man to pass through.

The only one man who would pass through that night did so.

"Evening, everybody." Jeremy chimed as he slid between the two doors.

The fattish man responded as the voice of the majority, with his overly exaggerated and slurred Italian accent. "And who is this we owe the honor of this visit?"

Jeremy shrugged as he marched forwards through the barrier of blades that surrounded him with every step. "No one particularly. Just hoping for a few questions from the Don of the Corisiones. Guessing that's you."

"And what would this question be…?"

"You've been managing to find a way to track the Jellyfish Pirates. I want in on your intelligence network."

The Don's face seemed to wrinkle up in some unreadable emotion at those words. "I am sorry, but the moment you said those words, you have doomed yourself. Also, I don't want eyewitnesses of this operation. You are going to have to die now."

"Heh, that's funny. Looks like I stumbled into some big-ass shit now." Colt sneered. "But you should know, if you follow through with what you say, you'll be dooming yourself as well."

The Don snorted indignantly. "I believe you are confusing yourself. There are over twenty of us, and only one of you. No matter how good you are, or what you might be armed with, the numbers always win."

Colt shrugged and pulled free a medicine bottle for his headaches "Well, your bad…"

"You can kill him now."

A bald, shirtless one in front of Colt attacked first with his Seikishidan model weapon.

Then he died.

A lone purple blade, flat as paper, crossed the distance between the two, entered the mobster's face, and exited the other side. The thug's face jerked back as his face stilled in his last emotion of shock before he toppled downwards, falling through the blade, his own body weight cutting his head in half. The blade that smote such foe then pulled itself back into Jeremy's outstretched palm. Reactions were as expected.

"What-what the fuck?"

"What are you?"

"Who are you?"

"Jesus! He killed Billy!"

Jeremy stuck out his arms then. "Well, you want to give up now and give me my answers? There's going to be no eyewitnesses tonight… I can go all out if I want to."

The Don still remained defiant "Kill him! You still out number him!"

Spurred on by his words, again a few more nameless gangsters, with their weapons, charged.

Colt then let the blades emerge from all over his body.

-

-

-

After months of planning, everything was ready. After months of spying, intimidating, study and research, it all came down to this.

Tonight, the International Police Force would find the alleged organized criminal group, known as the Corisione Family, caught red-handed in the middle of their own drug trade.

Ky Kiske, obvious best choice for leading the operation, led his group of likewise police officers through the slum streets of Paris. As always, the French officer was wearing his old blue and white Seikishidan trench coat like uniform. Also on hand was his weapon.

The Thunderseal, one of the eight weapons of the Outrage set, purposely designed to harness magic for the purpose of fighting the now non-existent Gears. Ky's Outrage blade came in the form of a white rapier like weapon with peculiar blue hilts on the sides of the weapon.

Of course, things began to go wrong the moment Ky turned the corner onto a particular scene.

"What on…" Ky's shock was shared likewise with his team.

Ahead of them lay pieces of body parts. There was not even enough cohesiveness to make out a singe corpse. Just body parts sliced cleanly apart everywhere, and the blood being spilled freely on the ground.

_What… what caused this to happen?_ Ky was no stranger to gruesome death, but other officers with him, new and expecting a clean operation, let shock consume them in varying ranges of trembling, and release of body fluids, be it bile or urine, or something else.

Ky's head turned to a source of a deep scream in the distance, alerting the officer to related troubles. "Let's move!" He commanded and rushed past the pieces of bodies towards the source of the outcry.

Be it criminal or not, God still commanded 'Thalt shall not kill humans.'

-

-

-

One mobster managed to live one second longer than usual as he was carried upwards on one blade before velocity and gravity cleaved him in two. The lengthy purple tendrils whipped around, attached to his body, ripping through whatever Colt desired.

"Ah, fuck." Jeremy muttered as he accidentally cut through a man's major artery before outright killing him, leaving a smear of blood across the Bounty Hutner's face.

Some of them tried to run, but more tendrils merely caught up with the men, and wrapped around various vital body parts before jerking hard back towards Jeremy, shredding them into un-proportional halves.

_It's really been a long time since I resorted to an all out human bloodbath. I almost remember that day…_

Jeremy looked down on one certain teenager, completely frozen in fear against a crate, shaking and staring at the creature in front of him.

"Don't-don't want to die… Don't kill me… please…"

_"Don't! Please! Mercy!"_

_I impaled that scientist through the head, and left him attached to a computer terminal for a while before I withdrew my tendril._

Jeremy heard something behind him, and grabbed the psychic appendage and ripped it out of the dead punk's head, and swung it around behind him like a whip, cutting through debris, inanimate or human alike.

"Fucker! I'll kill you!" another seemed to appear from nowhere and charged towards the Bounty Hunter.

_"Die!"_

_The scientist behind me with a chair in his hands fell in two, as one psychic blade instinctively flew out of my back to attack him._

Jeremy watched on as the scant few remaining kept their weapons between them and him, as they continued to back away. Colt's weapons disappeared and lost solidity like violet mist, letting the blood staining them to fall the ground. Holding his arm in front of him, a sizable purple blade pulled itself out of Jeremy's sleeve and affixed itself perfectly aligned to his wrist like a rudimentary sword.

_The ones with guns in the far room, I flew at them. I thrust the blade on my wrist into one man's chest, and ripped it out of him and spun a circle, making blood spray unto the metal world around me, and all over me. It wasn't that I liked bloody deaths, just that people seemed to die faster that way._

Jeremy saw no one left alive amidst the blood pooled around his feet and painted across every imaginable surface.

_Damn, don't tell me I killed EVERYONE. I needed to ask Donny a few questions._ As soon as the thought completed itself, Jeremy heard footsteps on metal sheets to the right of the building. Making his way over, he found a staircase that traveled up to a suspended pathway hanging under the corrugated tin roof. Following up the path, Jeremy found it continued towards some sort of office attached to the side of the warehouse, where bosses, managers, foremen, whatever you called them, spied upon the activities of their servants.

Entering the room, he found it immaculately dressed up in richness, the room golden with the warm light of a lamp nearby, with the Don sweating behind his desk, seated and brows furrowed in lack of options. Two windows flanked the rectangular room, lengthwise. One faced the outside world, the other connecting into the warehouse. Two glasses and a bottle of Bourbon were also sitting on the glass expectantly.

"So we gonna finally talk?"

"You…killed them all?"

"Yeah."

"…All this for a mere question?"

"When it all comes down to it. So, it's all down to you now. If you want to live, just be a good boy and answer the questions…" _You know, when the boss sits behind the desk, there's usually a gun in the drawer as well_.

**But he won't. This isn't the 80's, you know.**

The Don remained grim, but reached for the Bourbon, "I see… Bourbon? It's an import from Troy"

Jeremy slid into the chair in front of the desk. "Kindly, but doesn't Troy Bourbon suck?"

"It's been improving, but mostly for nostalgia's sake. I was raised there."

Glasses were poured out like old comrades. One dressed richly in a silken suit, the other dressed richly in blood. The Don tentatively took his for sake of keeping sober, but Jeremy showed no regard, taking down the entire glass in one go. Jeremy then began.

"I want the entire truth. How do you track the Jellyfish pirates?"

"…Do you know of the Post War Administration Bureau?"

"…No? Care to explain?"

"They are a very, very powerful underground organization. I do not know their motives, but they came to us with a deal."

"That was…?"

"You see, the Jellyfish are constantly harassing several of my enterprises… they came to us saying that in exchange for equipment, and the tracking system, we were to do… errands for them, if you will."

"Like what?"

"They suspected that the Pirates were in possession of a working Gear and a Japanese, they said that if we were ever to destroy the pirates, we were to capture both of them alive."

"I see… you became a little bulldog for these Post War guys, doing their job for them while they stay in the background."

"Please, I do prefer you not call the Corisione Family a 'little bulldog'"

"Whatever, you still haven't answered my main question, how do you keep track of the Jellyfish?"

"The Post War Administration's Intelligence network in simply mind boggling. They use a Black Tech radio network… one needs certain radios and frequencies to hear their banter."

"And do you have these frequencies on hand?"

The Don opened up one of his drawers and pulled out several manila folders, each chock-full of papers. "Here."

The Bounty Hunter thumbed through one of them, holding specifications. Ah, good, I have these types of radios stuffed away… The mafia boss's voice cut in then.

"You know… you seem very trusting that I won't attack you."

Jeremy's kept looking through the paper "And what can you do? As you can see, I can handle any blade."

Click.

_Ah, fuck._ Jeremy stared into the handgun that the Don removed from the desk.

"Ah, but you see, the Post War Admin are very fond of Black Tech. They even gave me this souvenir."

"… A Beretta… haven't seen those in a while…" Jeremy managed to comment, though he felt a bead of perspiration fall of the side of his head.

"It's too bad you were so sure you'd get away with the information I gave you. What, you'd think I wouldn't give this stuff without a fight?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, too bad, time to die."

A pause. The Don's face seemed to show moments of panic and frustration.

"Problems?"

"Shut up!" Don Corisione continued to struggle and force the trigger down; as per instructions, but the damned thing seem to resist movement.

Colt then smirked and stood up, looming over the Italian. "I think I see the problem." Roughly snatching the weapon out of his hand, Jeremy aimed the gun at the Don. "Safety's on."

A single shot rang out, as the Don howled in pain and collapsed out of his chair, falling to the floor and clutching his side.

"So in the end, I still win." Jeremy sneered, while the Don glared and panted.

"You… won't get away with this! I have the Pwab! I have the French Families! I have alliances all over the world! I can make you disappear forever!" was the final threat.

"Well, that'd be mighty kind of you to kill me, but you see I promise myself to die fighting, and that gives me a rather nasty knack for surviving. In fact, that's what I seem to be famous for sometimes. Some idiot said I had the luck of the Devil and even came up with the nick-name 'Six-Six-Six-Lives Colt'"

The name seemed to strike certain chords in the Don's memory, as his eyes widened in disbelief. "Jeremy Colt?"

"Looks like I'm a little too famous…" Came the reply with a shrug.

"No…no! You don't remember us? You don't remember the Corisione Family?"

"…no?"

"Damn it! You took help from us! You were so pathetic you needed help from us to track down that Seikishidan spy Quint Darton! You don't remember? Back in Troy! Back in the final years of the War!"

Colt sneered. "…When you lived through what I have, you tend to be quite forgetful…"

The Don seemed to reach a sort of enlightenment then, as he noticed something.

"What… what are you? How many years has it been since I last saw you? You still look the same as before!"

Jeremy was silent for a few seconds. "I'm mostly human. But I prefer to be addressed as 'Monster'. You're going to have to die now, since you remember me." The Monster pointed the Beretta at the Don's head, which had him chuckle in his death throes.

"Funny… I remember out last meeting… I said the that I had a feeling that next time our paths would cross, we would have a different type of conversation and friendship… funny how things turned out…"

"Yeah, funny how they did."

-

-

-

As Ky rushed into the warehouse, the first thing his senses picked up was the smell of copper and the sounds of several gunshots before a silence. Then he saw the chaos about him, the death around him exactly like in the street.

_The one who did this is still here._

Ky's eyes narrowed as he gripped his sword, and electricity began to dance upon the surface of the blade.

_And I must bring him to justice… criminal or innocent alike; he should know it is written… "Thalt shall not kill humans"_

A/N: Have to break chapter into two. You get "Kliff-hanger" now. (guffaws)


	6. The Miserable

Ky glared across the café table at Colt, who stared out past the veranda at the crowds who moved to and fro past the two in the morning sun. The mass-murderer of last night had one arm holding a coffee cup, black and full of aspirin, in the air, the other by his lap pointing a gun at Ky under the steel table, though everything was covered by Colt's jacket that was removed and laying over his lap.

Colt turned back to his adversary of also last night with a fierce grin. "I'm actually a little surprised that you managed to find me so soon."

"It shouldn't be, since you're so stupid as to stand out in the middle of daylight while bounty posters are being printed." Ky replied flatly, undertones obviously of disgust.

"Well, it'll take a whole day to be enough posters to fill the city, so I figured I had at least one day to relax before I crawl 'back to Hell where God hath justly punished you to be with all the heretic Gears', which is what you probably might say" Jeremy said with a deep, mocking, preaching tone, then after taking down the still hot and steaming drink, and then continuing with a question, "How's the bump?"

Ky recalled his mental image of the sizable sore on the back of his head "How did you do it?"

"What?"

"Catching me from behind while you were in front of me, did you have a partner?"

Jeremy rolled his eyes and snorted, "Now why should I give some brat like you my trade secrets? Even if I had a partner, I'd probably have him as a scapegoat, not as my buddy."

There was a silence between the two, while Colt continued to drink his coffee with disregard to Ky, while the Knight had to stay in order to keep the public around them secretly safe and not let this criminal slip away again.

"You were a Seikishidan Knight, right?" Ky said again after a while.

Colt grinned again before putting down his cup of coffee. Using his freed hand he grabbed the large belt buckle dangling off his left leg and dropped it onto the metal table between them. "Well what do you think?"

Ky looked down and saw it was a standard issue Holy Order belt. Like nearly every other soldier, including Ky himself, Colt's buckle had a word inscribed in it as well: _Dream._

"Didn't we teach you anything then? About the value of human life? How could you just butcher those-"

"The value of human life? That's a nice line." Colt smirked while popping open another aspirin bottle.

"What do you mean by that?" Ky asked.

"If I recall Kansas, the only reason why we were there was to hold the Gear in the battlefield long enough for the Artillery to rain down on us both. It doesn't matter anyways what happened last night. Everybody dies, one step at a time. In the end, life's journey is to determine the outcome of your death."

Ky reached forward angrily, though still keeping in mind of the weapon below the table. "Is that supposed to justify what you did?"

"Not really, but it's what I think." Colt shrugged as he downed more of his headache half-cure.

"I can't believe people like you were in my command…" Ky muttered.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I was never in your command to begin with."

"…What?"

"You weren't my Commander." Jeremy simply replied again.

Ky still continued persistently "But if you were in the Seikishidan, how could you have not been in my command?"

"Who knows when you'll get the answer? Anyways, I wasted too much time here, I gotta go."

Both men stood up at the same time, while the Bounty Hunter dropped a few coins onto the table. Ky kept his face locked on Colt while he threw his jacket over his shoulder, not caring whether or not a gun was revealed in his grip.

"I'm not letting you get away again, Colt." Ky said, his voice full of hidden acid and steel.

"'Course you will … or do you want half the city to disappear? "

It was strange then, the vacuum of time in between the two. It seemed like the Seikshidan Knight was the only one who heard those words. Everyone else passed by the café, while the two stood in front of each other, in some twisted game of Chicken. Ky was the only one who at the moment knew best about Colt. It seemed very likely the Bounty Hunter's proclamation could be done

Jeremy began to move forward again, with Ky's darkening looks as the only resistance. Jeremy took note of it though, and stopped his stride beside him.

Jeremy looked at the knight Kiske, amused at his facial expression. "Don't be so upset Ky…" He began while he shoved his gun into the back of his pants, so he could reach for another bottle of aspirin.

"…If you're really that adamant about punishing me-," another pause as pills were poured freely into the speakers mouth, then the swallow. "-Then relax and watch. If things go right this time, I should be dead by the end of this year at least, so just watch."

"_If things go right this time"? "I should be dead"?_ Ky turned around at those words to watch in confusion at the disappearing man. But his duty came to mind just as fast as he watched the criminal escape. Ky felt something like a growl, or some feeling of frustration or anger arise.

_I'll get to the bottom of this. Don't think you got away, Jeremy Colt._

_-_

_-_

_-_

"God damn it! How could you let them him get away? Corisione is dead now!" One of the men in suits slammed his fist on the long table, opening the discussion to the real topic at hand. Seated around table in the room no one knew where, were the heads of countless crime families in Paris.

"Calm down, Lucius."

"I am not calming down about this issue till I personally shit on that man's corpse. Just for kicks, some prick goes and kicks out a major foundation in the peace of the families!"

Another spoke up "Lucius, it's true that we cannot take this lying down, but whoever did this plowed through an entire warehouse of men, and also, we don't know how to find this man. The world has gotten bigger again, you should know."

A new opinion came in then, "Yo, yo, yo, wait here, what 'bout that group Corisione worked with? Ya know…" The slick talker snapped his fingers a few times to conjure up the memory, "That Post War group or something or other, ya know!"

"You mean that group that Corisione thought was his great secret?"

"Yeah! I always remember how he boasted about how he had a friend that could see anywhere he wanted. What if that buddy of his is that Post War bunch? If they really were all palsy with Corisione, I'm sure they'd they pretty pissed with what's going on!" The slick talker said.

"So are you saying that if we partner with this Post War group, we'd some how miraculously find out where this punk killer went? Some story." Lucius snorted.

"What, you got a better idea?"

"Yeah, make a bounty! Make it expensive; make it so public it'll make people's eyes bleed from seeing the same number everywhere they go. Cover the city in bounty posters!"

"Didn't you hear? That doesn't make a difference! Did you see the inside of that warehouse? The place was literally painted in gore!"

Arguments broke out between the men around the table as for how to handle the situation. Several minutes passed by the time the men at the end of the table managed to get the mess back together.

"Gentlemen, the course of action we should take is open to discussion, but not to war. However, the two of you do bring up good points. At this moment of time our only course of retaliation is to place bounties on this man's head. However, I believe it would be better if the Families personally killed this man. If an agreement with this Post War group can be met, it should be attempted. Until then, we must leave this matter in the hands of the bounty hunters. Any other opinions?"

There were murmurs around the table again, before a unanimous shaking of heads and uttered 'no's.

Despite the landscape of the woody path being torn to pieces from the battle, Jeremy found the scene oddly pleasant to look at from under the shelter of one of the remaining trees.

_Like a Magritte painting,_ Jeremy decided as he threw another empty bottle away. _It's weird to look at, because it looks nothing out of the ordinary… but it should._

"I guess you could call it art… What about you, samurai?" Jeremy asked the unconscious, kimono wrapped form he shredded and was using as a footrest.

This had to be probably the worst off-times Jeremy ever experienced in the whole of his life. Not even being buried under hundreds of pounds of dead Gears for days before somebody noticed him, or even that time he was being tortured by those damn UN hating Brits compared to this. At least he didn't have time to be annoyed.

But now, he had bounty posters by **both** the International Police Force and several mercenary sponsoring groups AKA Those gangster families that were buddies with Corisione. Ky just wanted him arrested, but the Families just wanted Jeremy dead. Pretending that Jeremy got caught (Which, outside of that time with those UN hating Brits, will never happen), he would probably be taken to the party paying more for him. Because of this, Ky and the Families would be caught in a race to see who could pour more money into the bounty. Eventually, Jeremy could very well end up being so expensive…

_I can't end up being like this. It catches too much attention._ Jeremy glumly thought._ I might have time to lie low…but I'm not going to wait forever for an opportunity to get to Dizzy again._

_Either way the prices are going to raise, whether I lie low or not. The only break I got is right now, while the newbies try to take my head now. Once I get more expensive, the good bounty hunters, or at least the experienced ones will come after me_

_Including…_

…_Sol…son of a bitch…_

_But then again, there's **her…**_

Jeremy noted idly the unconscious and bleeding psycho samurai he was resting on. This person, whoever she was, was another of the many bounty hunters that had caught up to him. Among the numbers included a ninja, a transvestite twelve year old, and a few other notable clowns, but they were still average human clowns. Of course, whenever Jeremy beat them down, they would always say that a woman, or musician wearing red was the person that sent them on their merry way in their lame attempt to make money. Colt for sure knew it was the same one he met when on the Jellyfish's Airship

_What the hell does she want from me anyway? Is she another bounty hunter? That's pretty low of her to send confused lackeys after me. She must be pretty quick on news to know about my price…_

Colt pondered this situation. Though he appreciated the company, he was more than sure that Dizzy was all he would need to accomplish his objective, so having armies of idiots looming over him constantly would just slow down his chase on a flying enemy. Also, he needed a radio so he could listen up on what this Post War group had to say on Dizzy. He was sure that one of his hideouts in his undisclosed location in Europe had one of those. After his short service with the Knights and Boss Commander, he generally had a lot of free time, hence resulting in him collecting lots of Black Tech junk over the years and having him dump it among his countless lairs. He was sure that his undisclosed location had one of those.

So there was only one thing Jeremy could do at the moment.

_Go there, get the radio, hang around for a little while and relax. Eventually things will cool down enough that I can go out and track Dizzy… maybe a month perhaps?_

_-_

_-_

_-_

In a certain town in Europe, Jeremy walked into the only Inn they had.

"Oh, Mister Colt! You're back!" Noticed the beefy enough Innkeeper, typical of one who owned Inns for some reason.

"Yeah, dunno how long though, so I want my room back."

"Of course." The beefy enough Innkeeper moved behind a counter to collect the room key and followed after Colt's memorized steps.

"So… where've you been? We haven't seen you in… about a year, I'd say."

"None of your business, unless you're my partner. Even then, you'd just be a scapegoat, not a partner." Colt replied with a business-like edge.

"Y-yes, of course." The beefy enough Innkeeper mumbled before speaking again. "You heard the news, didn't you?"

"About what happened in Paris?"

"Yes, and I'd like to say first and on the behalf of everyone in this village, that we would never, ever think of betraying you, ever, and-"

Jeremy raised a hand to pause the man's speech "Alright, that's enough. As long as I know where everything stands. Well, where **you** stand at least."

Shutting the door behind him, Jeremy gave off a snort of amusement at the man's speech and popped open another bottle of aspirin.

It was a funny story, really, of how Jeremy made himself into a local legend here. Before Jeremy came around, the village was a desolate fortress for a mish-mash band of rouges and thieves. Then one day, the bounty hunter picked up a price for cleaning out the place. It took one week of travel, and one night of bloodbath. Before long, everyone had their eternal praise and gratitude for Colt saving their town. So really, the only reason why this place was flourishing again was because of Colt's bounty.

Though that was only half the reason why nobody here dared to cross him. The other half was because the people in this habitation were smart. They knew Colt wasn't some hero that descended the sky to save them. They knew that the bounty hunter was no better than the bandits he saved them from. It was only because they were indebted to him, and the fact he could easily wipe out this village, that the people here thus decided to do their best to over look the questionable nature of his profession.

Plus, the only thing he didn't pay for was his stay at the Inn (But he was 'Checked In' all the time, so there was still a bill, technically), he came only occasionally, he was polite enough, and he didn't ask too many outrageous favors. So it was all right in the end.

The town square was a pretty beautiful place. There was a sort of simplicity and charm to it. There was a primitive enough fountain in the center of the area, a good deal of benches strategically placed around for the lovers at night, and the dreamers during the day.

And as the people passed by, two homeless bums sat on a bench. On the bench behind them was another man, dreaming.

"…Can't believe they gave us all this nice food, those pirates." one of the bums guffawed, as he chewed on his sandwich

"It's too bad they'll be leaving so soon as well." The other said.

"It's pretty funny, I'd never think I'd see all so many girl pirates."

"Yeah, even if they looked pretty young… They were pretty hot!"

The two bums laughed.

"Yeah, especially that blue-haired one! She's a killer! Man I'd kill for a gentle sweet like that!"

The dreamer behind them twitched.

"But what do you think of that guitar chick that passed through today? Man, she was really asking for it!"

"Yeah, it's funny. Everything about her was screaming 'I'm a whore!' It makes me wonder who the hell gave her that idea to be a bounty hunter."

"What I wonder is why she's after those pirates."

"And what I wonder is what the hell makes her think those pirates are in the forest?"

"Yeah, don't most pirates have an airship?"

"Maybe they ain't pirates."

"Then what else they'd be?"

"Bandits?"

"What the hell you up on? 12-year-old girl bandits? What. The Fuck."

"I'm just offering opinions…"

"Well, your opinions suck."

And as the people passed by, two homeless bums sat on a bench, arguing. The bench behind them had only an empty aspirin bottle.

Jeremy supposed he was truly grateful for the PWAB and Corisione. If it hadn't been for them, he wouldn't be having a new Beretta to go with his Colt Cavalier, and frankly at this point he really needed whatever firepower he could get.

Maybe the pirates were in the forest, if those two drunken bums were right. Maybe it was both the pirates AND that guitar slut. Or perhaps it was just the guitar woman. Maybe it was just an elaborately staged trap get the Bounty Hunter killed **yet again.** Either way, he needed to find out what this whole thing meant.

Eventually Colt had ventured deep enough into the woods so that the sun could not penetrate enough to give good light, leaving the place covered in dark greens and blacks. Shadows shifted everywhere, and the wind whispered past the Bounty Hunters ears as the only companion in this place.

"WARNING!UNIDENTIFIEDSUBJECTENTERINGSAFEZONE!SCANMODEACTIVATED!"

Jeremy turned around surprised and tried to pinpoint the source of the noise, pull out both guns and pointing them wherever he faced.

_That…wasn't wind…_

"WARNING!UNIDENTIFEDSUBJECTISNOTINPOSTWARADMINISTRATIONBUREAULISTOFEMPLOYEES!STANDBYUNITNUMBERTHREEHUNDREDANDSIXTYONSEARCHANDDESTROYMODE!SUBJECTIMAGECAPTURED!PROCEEDING!

_Post WHAT? Did that whatever just say-_

Colt ducked in time and low enough for a Seikishidan model sword to zoom narrowly over his hat. And about ten other swords quickly came out of the darkness to stab him wherever he fled. Backing away, Jeremy ducked under a stab while one of the figures cloaked in shadows ended up impaling the tree the ex-knight was in front of. Colt's assassin struggled for another second to remove the blade before his head exploded from Jeremy's Beretta. Jeremy watched in a mixture of amazement and shock as metal pieces flew from the attackers head while sparks emitted and the attacker twitched and tossed uncontrollably on the ground of the forest.

While not a good comparison, Jeremy Colt's aged memories of Star Wars and The Matrix reminded him of the only other really sentient thing that was composed of metal and electricity.

_A robot! Since when were there robots? I thought Gears did all the menial tasks._

Jeremy noticed the area around him darkening and looked up in time to see another of his shadow cloaked attackers fall on him.

_Two Magnum shots left, seven Nine-millimeter rounds left, ah, geez, this sucks_. Jeremy had returned to his reasonably bleak gray colored, dust covered, wood-planked Inn room, managing to avoid much fuss, since the blood trail that he left, by comparison, wasn't as bad as **that **time.

And so Jeremy Colt lay in bed, wooly covers over him since it felt kind of nice over the bandages on his bleeding chest… whatever.

_"So…whose brilliant idea was it to get two homeless bums to sucker me into a trap?" Jeremy snorted while wiping some excess blood that was running down the side of his face. Shoved to the side of the alleyway was a piece of meat that was one of the bums. The other was pinned up to the wall through his appendages by purple blades that curved back into Jeremy's back._

_"L-look! I didn't know! It sounded harmless enough!" The remaining bum whimpered._

_"Who gave you the idea?" Jeremy icily asked again, getting tired of the run-around of his questions._

_"It was some woman in red leather with a guitar. She said she'd have sex with me if I told you that story the next time you came around!"_

_"And you believed someone like her?"_

_"Hey! I was having sex with a god for just telling you she and some pirates were in a forest! How was I supposed to know!"_

_"Whatever."_

_The remaining bum's head was lopped off before he even knew it. Colt then walk off, blades disappearing like violet mist, with the blood coating them splashing to the ground off the blades that were once there._

_-_

_-_

_-_

_What's this all supposed to mean though? Jeremy questioned mentally into the air. The woman in red suckered me into a bunch of robots from the Post War group. Does that make her from the Post War group as well? How does someone like her tie in with them? A phantom group that I only learned about a few days ago? What does she want from me? Why are there robots?_

_Why does me hunting down some damn Gear have to be so complicated? Back in Kansas it was go, stab, kill, done!_

Jeremy pulled the cover over himself and mumbled to himself, annoyed.

_Whatever. If no one entered this room since last year, the Radio should be in the closet. My Aspirin is beside me. I should go get that generator tomorrow. For now I will sleep._

And for a month, Jeremy disappeared off the face of the world.

A/N: Dunno how I should apologize… yeah I was gone for three months or so, but I feel rather stupid if I went "OMG I'm SO SOWEE! GOMEN GOMEN! (wow look at me, I do look like I know Japanese!) FORGIVE MEE!" You know the act. Well anyways, I'm sure to get some more of Jeremy's mad romp done over this break. I swore to myself to finish this, or never write anything else for the rest of my life, so… yeah…


	7. Fake Angel vs Electronic Angel

Jeremy decided to call this period of his life "Rip Van Winkle Syndrome", because it was that damn boring. Like every other day of the past month and a half, Jeremy was slumped over the wood desk, listening to the near nonsensical drone of the radio over the completely nonsensical drone of the electric generator that was powering the radio.

It really was an annoying month. First, the generator was pure Black Tech, since magic generation and power worked on an entirely different level that seemed like electricity, except that Jeremy would never understand any of it, except it would probably blow up the radio if he attached it to such generator. Either way, Colt's generator used gas. This in itself was no problem; Colt had plenty of gasoline stored away. But using it nonstop was starting to get wasteful, and at this rate, if he didn't get a result soon, he'll probably keep waiting for one until he ran out of gas. That wasn't really a good thing.

Jeremy glowered at the mental image of the steadily growing pile of empty fuel cartons bunched against the vibrating generator.

Also, there was the whole thing about the bounty on his head. The stakes rose everyday he was missing, and more than one bounty hunter passed through Jeremy's town in search of him. True enough to their words though; the townspeople kept his residency here a secret. Still, the Ex-Knight was practically imprisoned in his room, while listening nonstop about the reports of the targets of the Post War Administration Bureau, and what they were doing in the mean time. More than once, Dizzy was mentioned.

_But damnit! All she's doing it flying around the fucking planet! Does that thing have no need for gasoline?_ Jeremy finished the thought with more frustrated mumbles and noises in his throat.

The Post War Admin…they really are an interesting bunch…this organization, which keeps track of magic users all over the world. But what do they want with all these people?

_They sound like bug-catchers hunting down specimens…_

_Specimens…_

_Will I be a specimen?_

Colt hated the sound of that last thought. To live in fear of being captured again by these… scientists…

-

-

-

The boy sniffed away the last of his tears as he watched the man in the white coat swab the inside of his elbow with a cotton ball wet with alcohol.

_I want my mom…_

_Don't worry, I'm sure we can arrange something soon enough._

_W-Where are we?_

_In a…hospital._

_Hospital? I'm not sick, am I?_

_No. But this isn't your regular hospital. This hospital is for making people stronger._

_But…I still want mom…_

_Don't worry, I'm sure we'll let your see your mother again soon._

_I don't like this hospital. Why am I the only one seeing doctors here?_

_Because you're special._

_I have to be special to see doctors here?_

_Yes. Only special people get to be stronger here. Step on here please._

_What are you doing?_

_We're going to make you stronger now. It's just a few shots._

_O-okay…Hey doctor, wait! What are you doing? I can't get out now!_

…_Remember to target the major veins for injection, and arteries for removal. I want enough blood to be removed so there will be space for the compounds. _

_Doctor? I want to get out! Let me out!_

_(Needles…needles everywhere. They're stabbing me everywhere. Why is everything so quiet? I'm screaming, aren't I? Why is nobody looking at me? It hurts. I'm bleeding. I don't want to die. What's that black and yellow stuff they're putting into me? It hurts so much. I don't want to die. Where's mom? Mom, help me…)_

_(…My head hurts…)_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_Agh, headaches again._ Jeremy grabbed one of the aspirin bottles near by, and after a few rattles, was satisfied it was at full enough to work. Pouring the all of the remaining contents into his mouth, he listened again to the Post War Administration Bureau's talks.

"Intelligence, this is Fuzhou, China. I think I'm seeing an Airship landing with that matches the description of the one that is harboring the Second Self Reliant Gear. I'm moving in to make a positive." Garbled an electronic, but still Asian accented voice.

"Affirmative. Continue with your movements." Returned the same monotone female.

_You better positive it. It's been over a month already. I'm just about ready to take any opportunity to get at Dizzy again_. Jeremy thought to himself. He pulled himself closer to the radio in anticipation of the news.

"Intelligence, this is Fuzhou again. I've identified the Airship as positive. The Mayship has landed in Fuzhou, China. I'm going to check how long it's going to be here. Send me men just in-."

Jeremy jumped up with a start "YES! THEY'RE DOWN AGAIN!" The Ex-Knight reached for another Aspirin bottle.

The price of shouting in joy usually was two Aspirin bottles.

-

-

-

Jeremy's flight took weeks to cross from Europe all the way into Asia. It was unlikely that they would still be there; in fact it was down right stupid for Jeremy to try and catch them from this distance. But they had finally landed again, and Jeremy was getting tired of sitting and listening, and he was going to take any chance to take any action.

Violet wings flapped.

_I remember the days where I had to fly low to the ground to avoid the radar…Now that there is no radar; I have to fly high, so that when somebody sees me, I'm just a bird in the sky._

_I suppose that a giant purple bird is the norm in this age of magic._ Jeremy chuckled at the thought.

Sure enough, just past the Asian mist, Jeremy saw the city in all it's glory settled in the deep green hills, and like so many other prosperous cities, a river ran by it, with boats and airships landing in its waters.

_Now just to find an orange one…_ Jeremy thought to himself as his sharp and pointed wings, constructed of his blades, pushed him under the cover of the trees outside the city, so that he could emerge a man on the other side.

-

-

-

_Figures, I should have known this was a stupid plan after all…_ Jeremy thought to himself as he stared into the grassland that served as an airfield. There were blue airships, red ones, yellow ones, even orange ones, but not one could hold a light to the description of the almost shameful collection of spray-painted scrap metal with preadolescent girls hanging off every-which-where of the hull, dressed in only sailor uniforms that looked like something out of a porn movie.

A visit to the wood shanty that was called an 'airport' by its owner revealed to Jeremy that such a ship of the following description had arrived on the same day Jeremy heard on his radio, stayed a week to restock, and left a long while back.

The Bounty Hunter was of course upset by the following, but grunted away the thoughts as he left the shanty-airport and trudged back to the city like the sick old man he should be.

_Tch, whatever, I knew this was going to happen in the back of my head anyways._ Jeremy sourly thought, as he pulled free another aspirin bottle when the pounding of the trudging finally reached his head.

_Now what?_

A thick European accent from behind answered for him, "My, my, judging by your clothing, you must be Jeremy Col-"

As a bounty hunter by professional trade, Jeremy already knew this was about to end in another showdown against some idiot wanting the price on his head. He was already dropping the aspirin bottle and whirling around as his hand reached for the magnum, pulling it out, cocking the hammer, aiming it at the stupid bounty hunter's-

Jeremy found himself whirling into the face of bearded man, a thick and strong wrist grabbing Jeremy's own and raising the gun out of aim. Instinct had Jeremy have his other free arm grab his remaining firearm to jam it into the assaulting bounty hunter's side, but the European's own countered in the same fashion of grabbing the gun and holding it away from him.

_Wh-what the fuck? He should have been at least ten feet back, from his voice, how the hell did he get in front of my face?_

The bearded jaw curled in amusement while dragging in fumes from the aged wooden pipe attached to the mouth as the rest of the face stared through a monocle back at Jeremy's bewildered own, still trying to comprehend a human of such speed.

"Now, now, now. What need is there to be hostile?" Came a joking crack. Jeremy just tried to pull and pry his arms free of the grip, but the aged gentleman's grip held.

_What the hell! He's like fifty or something, where's this grip coming from?_ "Fuck you! Don't think I'm helpless!"

"I know. But if I guess right, you're not to keen on showing those knives of yours in public?"

Jeremy froze at those words. "How do you know about that?"

"I've been watching you for a long time. Jeremy."

"…Are you with the Post War group?"

The gentleman chuckled at that. "If anything, if I ever offered my company to those, they'd have me locked up in a cage like an animal in no time."

"Either way, you're still a bounty hunter… I can still kill you without ever having to show my blades…" Jeremy sneered back.

The man blinked in surprise, but quickly flickered out of view, as if all Jeremy was talking to was just a hologram. Where the European's foot was, the beginning of a purple blade jutted out of the ground momentarily before retreating back under.

"So that's the secret, hmmm? You burrow your weapon under the earth and have it travel up the opponent's leg to attack the vital organs? How brutal." The gentleman noted from beside Jeremy.

"Whatever works, bounty hunter." Jeremy spat with a glare. _No use pointing a gun at him if he can move like that_

Now that his vision was no longer taken up completely by his face that was jammed in the middle of it, Jeremy could see this man was…

Way too gentlemanly. _What kind of bounty hunter bothers to wear a dinner suit like that?_

"How childish for a man like you to look only in black and white… I am not a bounty hunter." He stated simply as he breathed out smoke and sucked in more through his pipe.

"What do you want from me then?" Jeremy asked, tucking his face under the shadow of his hat and collar of his jacket.

"I just wish to point out something that could be in your best interest."

"Don't you mean your better own?" Jeremy snorted. There were no such things as good Samaritans.

"An acquaintance of yours is residing in a building, miles west in that direction." The pipe-smoking gentleman pointed in the direction, completely ignoring Jeremy's last statement.

"And how does this relate to you?" Jeremy muttered coldly.

"Hardly. I'm just interested in seeing what results of your meeting…" With that, the suited European gentleman blinked out again like a hologram, and didn't reappear at all.

_Tch, nosy bastard. An acquaintance, huh?_ Jeremy could feel a sneer form inside his head, but covered the whole motion over by consuming more aspirin. Jeremy knew full well the sheer stupidity of meeting "acquaintances", but curiosity was welling up inside of him.

In the end, Bounty Hunter rationalized him going as simply heading over to kick an ass and tell it off for trying to do something as stupid as trying to take on Jeremy Colt. Yes, that was all he was doing.

Dropping the medicine bottle by his feet, Jeremy slowly made his way through the field bound west.

-

-

-

The only building in the west of the area was a large decaying black tower. It looked very old for sure, probably a survivor of the Holy War. It was obviously something made by humans, no Gear outside of Justice, who itself probably did nothing but sit on its lazy ass, could have made something this carefully. It was too large to be a simple fort though; it could have probably been headquarters of some sort.

_This was probably razed by Gears or something._ Jeremy concluded, judging by the black coloring the structure. Thought the larger concern was whether he could traverse a building like that without it breaking apart halfway up, killing him in the process. He could see large chunks of the out walls missing, and the steel skeleton of the massive pillar was groaning rather too uncomfortably for Jeremy to wonder whether this was still a smart thing to do or not.

Jeremy just gave a frustrated sigh before throwing up his arms and marching forward to kick him out of his indecisiveness.

_If I die, I win. If I don't I'll just kick that person's ass and still win. There!_

It took a few short minutes of walking to find an entrance in, a pair of black and fairly large gates side by side, most likely the front door or an unimportant cargo entrance. Placing his hands of both gates, he pushed and found himself forcing the barriers away with little difficulty.

The next thing Jeremy never expected to be in a building. Nothing.

There weren't even floors inside the building. Apart from the dusty cement beneath his feet, the sides of the spire stretched up above him, but nothing inside. The building was nothing but a hollow concrete tube, scorched black and gray inside and out, and the sunlight illuminating the inside in a gothic gloom.

Jesus! If Gears did this, this was one hell of a razing! Colt didn't have enough appreciation of what Gears could do. Still, Jeremy had the hopes that Dizzy would be different than those other brutes. She was called "Second Justice"…

Hmmm… so where's this acquaintance of mine? Jeremy turned his head around, scanning for anything that looked remotely more intelligent than the shards of concrete rubble scattered around. He quickly found roughly shaped pillar of rectangular concrete driven lengthways by force into the side of the building's wall. Another piece, sharing the same rough shaping was driven into same wall next to the first, albeit slightly higher. Then came the next, and so forth until a rude staircase chased up the insides of the tower in a spiral, reaching up to…

_Maybe the top… I suppose that's where I'm supposed be off to…_ The sickly psychic slowly made his way to the first step, easily thumbing open the lid of an aspirin bottle to nurse.

-

-

-

The "stairs" led to network of rather narrow, aged, metal beams that crisscrossed each other in an attempt to support… something that probably wasn't there anymore. Above was the roof, and section of it had caved in and onto the metal beams that managed to hold. Thus Jeremy could see out into the clouded gloom outside, and the cement rubble became a ramp to the roof.

The roof, in Jeremy's opinion, would have been completely fucked up looking, if it were not the age of Magic. Therefore, it was just short of it.

Upon standing on the top of the world, the sky turned a deep pink/read like idealized blood. In extreme contrast to the sparsely decorated ruins below Colt, the area here was scattered full of crumbling columns and roman arched arcades. Proud statues were cracked and lay in pieces like so many casualties. A rotting velvet red carpet stretched from the bounty hunter's feet to across the barren chamber, up steps to tall double gate, one of them broken and hanging by one hinge.

Up above destroyed Gears frozen in floating ice served as audience for what was about to become of this place.

"Oh? I didn't expect you to come here, now that that slut Gear is gone." A sultry voice commented as she came out from the rubble beside Jeremy. If he remembered, this voice was interlaced with a quick acting poison.

Jeremy swiveled his head so only his cold brown eyes would reveal itself to the emerging Musician in Red, same as the last time he saw her, right down to the guitar on her back. "I was told somebody of interest outside of Dizzy would be here."

"Oh? By who?"

"Some weird-ass." Jeremy responded as he moved to the center of the roof, then swiveling on one foot to face the woman.

"However, now that you're here, you know what's going to happen now… right?" The musician sneered with a haughty tone.

"I do. It seems your getting desperate to have me dead. I'd like a few answers before we start, though."

"You'll be dead before you put those answers to any use, you know."

"Whatever. First, what are you doing here?"

"The bastard-child was here a while back. Looks like we both arrived a little late. I was hoping you'd get here sooner."

"I see… but why have you been sending people after me? Is it for the bounty on my head? Or are you still after Dizzy, and need the competition out of the way?"

"Neither. I'm not a bounty hunter. I'm just following orders."

"Orders? So you are with the Post War Administration-"

"Oh God, please! Like I'd associate myself with those bunch of prudes."

"Then how did you know the location of those robots in the forest?"

"It was just something I found one day. I figured it'd be useful to keep them around, just in case…"

"Hmmm…" was the only response given that showed Jeremy heard.

"I got a question for you now. What do you want with that half-breed?" She sounded like she had trouble just mentioning the existence of the Innocent Gear.

"I search for the strongest to help me finish the phrase." Colt decided to input artistically.

"Phrase?"

"Perhaps today…"

"Huh?"

Jeremy quickly opened a medicine bottle and consumed as much as he could take in before throwing it away roughly. A violent energy had entered him again.

"However, if you're strong enough, yourself, you might finish the phrase for me instead." The bounty hunter smirked, as he pulled out the two guns from behind him, and aiming them at the Musician.

She gave a deliciously feral smile as she reached behind her back and slid her blue-green guitar into her arms. "Not the type for foreplay, huh? Not even interested in a name?"

"Jeremy Colt." The bounty hunter identified first.

"I-no."

With that the musician attacked first, a simple leap turning her into an arrow headed straight for the bounty hunter's chest. Jeremy easily countered by firing his magnum, thunder and a burning golden streak flying to meet I-no head on. Amazingly, the musician completely changed directions, her forward propulsion stopping as she dove sideway behind the cover of shattered stone.

Jeremy snorted. "Amateur." He aimed his Berretta at a rather tall statue behind I-no's cover and squeezed off another shot. The bullet sank deep into an already dangerously sized gash across the stone giant's chest, the sudden force against the aged and damaged gray rock causing the top half of the statue to fall off from the rest and crush everything under it, preferably including the half-naked guitarist Jeremy was fighting.

"AND YOU'RE TOO SLOW!" Came the banshee shriek from above, and Jeremy quickly looked up in shock to see the Musician several feet above him, her 'Axe' firmly held by the neck in both hands above her head. While she fell, Jeremy quickly refocused his aim and fired whatever ammo he could spare. I-no easily twisted her body with inhuman speed and dodged each flying lead piece.

I-no swung her Marlene down and contacted purple. The force of the blow cracked the roof around them, and the ground beneath them broke away completely, and the two for a moment fell into towards the bottom of the empty tower with the rest of the rubble.

For a moment.

Several flat violet tendrils snaked through the air and buried themselves into the sides of the tower, the other sides of the blades magically (in a loose term) anchored to Jeremy's back. Using such, he easily avoided the falling ruin and landed against the side of the building, letting the chaos settle below.

Colt found I-no on the other side of the tower at the same height. **Floating.**

Jeremy though, for some reason didn't feel surprised. He just snorted when he saw the red sparkles by her feet like so much fairy dust.

I-no herself was giving off a bit of a vicious giggle. "I should have known. Only another freak of nature would bother looking after something like that half-breed shit."

_I don't have enough ammo to keep this fight up._ Colt pushed his guns away into the band of his jeans against his back as he retorted.

"Tch, and what about you? I suppose you got your powers after catching an S.T.D from fucking around like whore."

The Musician seemed immensely insulted by the comment, as her face darkened. Strumming a note on her guitar, her hat began to shift strangely. Soon enough, the skull design on her red hat quickly opened up to reveal a sharp-toothed jaw, with a speaker built inside. Before Jeremy could make a comment or facial expression, a gelatinous looking orb shaped suspiciously like a green musical note popped out of the speaker-hat, flying at a dangerous speed towards the bounty hunter.

Jeremy's psychic appendages immediately went into work, flinging Jeremy upwards from the apparent trajectory of the green projectile. It was too late when he noticed I-no's knowing sneer, while the orb swung upward, catching Jeremy straight in his shocked and gasping chest. The jelly-like explosion blew Jeremy back into the gray and decaying walls with just enough force to crack the stone surrounding him, eliciting a grimace before spitting up blood.

Jeremy's head swam with the headache acting up again, though he tried his best to think tactically.

_So…ugh…she likes playing long range…and aerial attacks? I can…m-urhg!-match her!_

Colt quickly slapped an open palm into the stone beside him, which began cracking and splitting in a straight line across the wall to I-no on the adjacent. The Musician kicked away just in time for the stone behind her to bloom with purple blades.

I-no's opponent had already thrown away another empty aspirin bottle and made the blades on his back continually grow in length, and since the blades were firmly entrenched in the building side, it forced Colt through the air towards the Woman in Red.

Said Musician dodged out of the way easily, avoiding the grasping white-sleeved arms that bristled purple with blades. But the maneuverability and speed of the man who normally moved so sickly like was underestimated. Jeremy easily had his tendrils twist him around almost ninety degrees from his initial miss almost immediately, and caught I-no head on, ramming her into the building side with an explosion of dust. Right after Colt appeared from the smoke, his body crushed against his quarry as he pushed them both up the side of the wall at high speed.

To Colt's amusement, his blades for some reason would not penetrate I-no's guitar, which she used as a shield between their bodies. It was no matter though; her pained face while her back was being torn up against the stone proved at least something Jeremy was doing got to that bitch.

**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! **

**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!**

**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!**

_What the-_ Jeremy's eyes widened as he watched the world seem to phase out from his vision, leaving only himself and the Musician behind along with the "Warning!" signs that swarmed the psychic's vision. Suddenly out of nowhere, something flashed into existence and began flanking I-no's side. They looked like wings, all right, full and feathery, white, soft and alluring. The two angelic props also were attached to what looked like round white speakers, true to the musical nature of Jeremy's foe. The speakers glowed and charged up.

Jeremy didn't really know what to make of this situation. He couldn't really think about it anyways. His headache was raging out of control as his head, along with the rest of his body was being pummeled to pieces by a barrage of orbs decorated with cracked pink hearts.

By the time his vision had stopped spinning every which way and being crowded in by broken hearts, he finally saw he was falling. He figured as much: it was hard to concentrate when it hurt.

A single tendril shot out and clung fast to the inside of the building, stopping Colt's decent enough so that after he bashed into wall from following physics, it didn't hurt nearly as much when he flopped onto the bottom floor a meter or so below him while his line of salvation misted away.

He didn't get up.

_Ow. Probable bruising. Should be something broken._

Another tendril sprang out from under Jeremy's back to drag him away in time to narrowly avoid a bright red spinning comet that crashed into his last position. The force was still enough to knock him out of his sliding, leaving him to bounce a few times across the ground before he finally got himself to stop in a kneeling position, ready to evade any further attacks.

"Yeah! That's it! Run away, you rat piece of shit! I'll have fun tearing your scurrying ass apart!" I-no was practically shrieking in delight like a witch out of lore.

Jeremy gave a hated, wide-eyed and animalistic growl as he clutched his side. Narrowing his eyes he began to concentrate. I-no managed to grunt in surprise before jumping away again, dozens of purple blades slicing up through the ground as more sprouted everywhere along the Musician's path. As she flew along, narrowly dodging the quickly sprouting forest of blades around her, she managed to turn her floating body upside down, splitting her legs in the most provocative and compromising of positions as she strummed another note.

_Black panties?_ Jeremy wondered what caused his brain to register that particular fact while he was in the middle of sidestepping a lance of orange energy that extended from I-no's form.

_Whatever._ Jeremy quickly shrugged it off while snapping out his right arm in a motion. A torrential side-pour of purple exploded out his back and slammed into his opponent's form as she just righted herself, before she disappeared under the river of pointed psychic energy that slammed into the far wall as more came in an attempt to skewer what was left of her. It all eventually stopped in time, leaving a mass of psychic tendrils embedded in the wall that stretched all the way back to its origin. So many, that there was not a trace of gray wall or the red woman that was supposed to be in front of it.

Silence.

_…Is she actually dead?_

Jeremy suddenly felt a tremor waver through the mass that connected him to the stone like some twisted umbilical cord. The Bounty Hunter's expressions darkened before he began to continue the barrage of his weapons into the wall.

A red hand smashed through the river in front of Jeremy before it covered Jeremy's vision. And gripped hard.

Jeremy screamed in pain as the normal dull throb of the pain expand, turning what normally left his head and his senses floating on a string above his body like a helium balloon, into white hot needles that stabbed everywhere in the inside of his head.

Jeremy staggered back and fell, the hand gripped hard as ever. The torrential purple umbilical cord lost its concentration and blew apart into oblivion, revealing the rest of I-no's bloodied form. On his back with a completely red musician straddling him, his hands desperately scrabbled for his firearms amidst his sea of pain, only find something like wire wrap his arms together and raise it above his body and out of reach of his guns. The hand over Jeremy's face continued to squeeze, forcing out of the man whatever sounds he could eek out to signify the lose of control over the pain in his head.

"So that's it! That's the scream button! I heard about you having some migraines, pitiful bastard." I-no's voice gleamed in her psychotic tone borne of bloodlust and anger of what the man managed to do to her.

I-no listened to the screaming for a little while longer before snorting, "You really are pathetic. Look at what you did to my body. I'm not even crying. But you, a little squeeze and you're on a ground screaming like a half-assed pussy. Not only that, your weapons need the concentration that you don't have right now. Keep your arms from getting your guns and the only thing left you can do is be a damn _piñata!"_

Jeremy felt something slam into his gut at that word, forcing him to instinctively jerk up as he felt something warm and salty come out of his mouth. The moment he rose of the ground, the hand over his eye immediately slammed the back of his head down into the stone. A lightning bolt of pain jumped from the top of his head, down through the sea of molten steel pins in his head, and back up again.

"You really are nothing but an amateur piece of shit that needs to be wiped of the shoes of the big players. And people are actually interested in you?" I-no laughed at the thought.

"Better…rat…than god…" Colt heard himself manage to gasp out.

_Focus…concentra-AGH!_

"Spoken like a true idiot."

"Rats at least have ambition-" Jeremy stopped as the pain overwhelmed him "- and the will to survive… what can you do as a god?-UGH! -Conquer? Rule? …and after heaven and hell… bows to you… what can you do? Sit in sterility… and watch…your trophies collect dust…"

"What's with all the smart talk? Think you're philosophical or something?"

"…"

"Well, either way looks like this fight is mine. Nice knowing you, now just to flatten your brain across this floor…"

Through the pain, Jeremy could feel the pressure applied to his head increase. The molten sea of pins in his head now had the lightning bolt as a permanent resident, and his head felt like it was going to split open at several angles.

Naturally, Jeremy screamed some more. Struggled as he could, his arms remained wholly bound, and though minor hints of purple were conjured, they so frail they were of little use.

_There's… only one thing left I can do…but I have to do it right…_

"One more ace…" was the last thing Jeremy uttered.

I-no gave a look of surprise before quickly comprehending. Colt, from his blocked vision, could still feel something attached to whatever wrapped his arms move. She was most likely going for the killing blow.

A single tendril flicked out of Jeremy's side, the energy barely held together to pull the Colt Cavalier free and throw it through the air before the whole thing dissipated under the weight.

Colt could hear a gunshot and the sound of flesh being punctured in a wet, dull tone. The sheer pain on his head immediately almost disappeared, while his vision returned as the hand fell away, along with the rest of the body.

Turning his head Jeremy could see the completely red musician on her side, her shocked face gasping for air as her eyes glazed over. A sizable enough hole penetrated the side of her chest. His arms, from what he could see were tied together from the strings of I-no's guitar, which lay in her limp hands. On the other side was the Colt Cavalier, completely drained of its six shots. Thrown through the air, the weapon hit the ground with enough force to fire, and was aimed at the woman at that point.

And so the three of them lay on the ground. I-no bled to death, the Colt Cavalier was empty, and Jeremy Colt was as well. The headaches were still quickly overwhelming him, and with exhaustion and the threat gone, all Jeremy could do was watch his vision involuntarily fade away from the pain.

A/N: With this, I shall search out for greener pastures. I shall continue with this, but other fics will be started as well.


End file.
